He said the project will be on tender based on the new model of oil contract.

He noted that general information on the field has been put at the disposal of two foreign companies based on the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and they have conducted feasibility studies.

The NDA in fact builds mutual trust and parties to the agreement can share information without fearing it will be leaked to a third party.

NDA cannot be called a contract, rather an agreement reached between two parties. 

Operator of the South Azadegan project said main information on South Azadegan field will be offered to companies when tender is held.

Marashi said studies on evaluation of South Azadegan field by the companies are not yet over and they will soon inform the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) of result of their study.

He said as long as tender for the second phase of South Azadegan oil field has not been held, it cannot be said which company is the winner to develop the field. 

The first phase of the project for development of South Azadegan oil field was entrusted to Iranian contractors as the Chinese company was discharged.

The South Azadegan oil field is developed to yield 320,000 barrels per day crude (including early production) in the first phase and raise the daily production to 280,000 bpd crude (overall 600,000 bpd taking both phases into consideration).

South Azadegan oil field is among Iranian common oil fields west of Karoon on Iraq border, 80 kms west of Iranian city of Ahvaz. The field has 25.34 billion barrels of in-situ oil and about two billion barrels of extractable oil, including 8.2 percent extraction recovery.