Shell submitted its proposal to Iran for the development of the South Azadegan and Yadavaran oilfields (on the Iran-Iraq border), following the December 2016 MoU which was signed with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
In May 2017, the Iranian Ministry of Oil launched the tender for the development of the South Azadegan field, which is the first oil field to be tendered within the framework of the new Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) and Shell is one of the contenders and was required to complete surveys. NIOC has already signed several non-disclosure agreements, namely memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with several other international energy companies such as Total, Petronas or Inpex for carrying out studies on the field's development.
The total recoverable resources of the South Azadegan field are estimated at about 6 Gbl while its contingent resources may reach 33-37 Gbl. South Azadegan and Yadavaran already have an early oil production of 50 000 bbl/d and 85 000 bbl/d, respectively. Once fully developed, possibly within the next three years, they are expected to add more than 600 000 bbl/d to the domestic oil production.