After piquing the interest of international oil companies (IOCs) over the past few months with promises to improve its widely derided buyback contracts, Iran made a big statement in Vienna last week with the announcement of plans to auction its most important producing oil fields as soon as is politically feasible. Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh is determined to boost production back to 4.2 million barrels per day, and his ministry is prepared to take on the country's nationalistic parliament and strict petroleum laws to bring IOCs into some of Iran's biggest oil fields. The first priority will be the award of the Ahwaz, Gachsaran, Aghajari, Bibi Hakimeh and Marun fields, which together hold proven reserves of 36 billion bbl. Ahwaz and Marun are supergiants, with remaining proven reserves of 12 billion bbl and 14 billion bbl respectively. The IOCs will be asked to bring both enhanced oil recovery technology and money to stem production declines at these ageing fields, and potentially start boosting output. Decades of production, sanctions and underinvestment have taken their toll on the five fields, which together accounted for just under 50% of Iran's pre-sanctions production capacity of 4 million b/d (PIW Oct.28' 13).
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