Italian oil and gas giant Eni is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding with the National Iranian Oil Company on Tuesday to study two Iranian oil and gas fields.
Based on the agreement, Eni will have six months to conduct survey on the offshore Kish Gas Field in the Persian Gulf and Darkhoveyn Oilfield in Khuzestan Province, ISNA reported Monday.
Italy’s biggest oil and gas firm hopes to pick up where it left off in the Darkhoveyn project. It completed the first and second development phases of the oilfield under a $550 million contract it had signed in 2001.
Eni had submitted a proposal to develop Darkhoveyn’s third phase and was reportedly close to finalizing a $1.5 billion agreement in 2009, but it was forced to halt operations following the fallout between Iran and the West over the country’s nuclear program that led to imposing tougher economic restrictions against Tehran in 2011 and 2012.
Darkhoveyn oilfield is located 30 kilometers north of Khorramshahr and 100 kilometers south of Ahvaz. It holds an estimated 5 billion barrels of crude oil in place, more than one-fifth of which is deemed recoverable.