OREANDA-NEWS. September 02, 2011. China is set to invest up to 8.4 billion dollars within 10 years for developing the Azadegan oilfield, south of Iran, the managing director of Iran's Petroleum Engineering and Development Company said.

Naji Sa’dooni added that the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has finalized the master plan of developing the Azadegan oilfield and presented it to the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). According to the plan, the field will have the capacity of producing 600,000 barrels per day of crude oil.

Some 12 billion dollars will totally invest in the plan, of which 70 percent will be secured by the CNPC, 20 percent by Iranian companies and 10 percent by the Japanese Inpex.

“The Chinese company has so far invested 6 million dollars for procurement of master plan, which will be increased to 200 million dollars by the time of inaugurating the operational stage”, Sa’adooni added.

Operational stage of the first phase of developing the Azadegan oilfield will be kicked of this year, Sa’adooni said, adding that in the first stage of the development plan, 185 wills will be drilled.

The Azadegan oilfield is one of the biggest oilfields that have been discovered in the world in the past thirty years. The field is located 80 km west of Ahvaz close to the Iraqi border. The field holds 33.2 billion barrels of in-situ oil deposit and 5.2 billion barrels of recoverable reserves.

Iran and China signed a 1.76-billion-U.S. dollar deal in January 2009 for the initial development of Iran’s North Azadegan oilfield. The deal was signed between the China National Petroleum Corp. and the National Iranian Oil Co.

The North Azadegan oilfield, located in Iran’s western province of Khuzestan, has estimated reserves of 6 billion barrels and can produce 75,000 barrels per day for 25 years.