Via Shana, news that Arvandan Oil and Gas Co. was busy setting up the first private oil producing company in Iran.  What struck me most about the report was the rather audacious production goals this new venture is reported to have set, namely to “…produce seven percent of the world’s oil, to be the world’s third-largest gas producer…”  According to the article:

“…The official … added the private sector’s company would have the capacity to produce one million barrels of oil per day in 2014.

…Arvandan Oil and Gas Co. Managing Director Salbali Karimi, for his turn, said his company had outlined a master plan that aimed to produce seven percent of the world’s oil, to be the world’s third-largest gas producer, and to establish refineries, petrochemical complex, and gas-to-liquids (GTL) plants.

Arvandan Oil and Gas Co. was set up on Dec. 7, 2004, using the most advanced gas injection technologies.

The company has derived 60 million barrels of oil from Darkhoein, Azadegan, Jofair, Moshtaq, Omid, Khorramshahr, Karkheh, Soussangerd, and Yadavaran fields in the past 18 months. Each of these fields has the capacity to yield 50 to 250 thousand barrels of oil daily.

Oil production from Darkhoein field had been doubled to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd), an Iranian official said Sunday, referring to part of a plan to hike output from OPEC’s second-biggest producer.

Darkhoein, a field in southwest Iran near the Iraqi border, was being developed by Italy’s oil and gas group Eni with Arvandan Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of the state’s National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

Eni signed a $550 million deal with Iran’s state oil company in 2001 to develop the field. It brought the first phase on line in 2005 and is now active in the second phase.

…The Oil Ministry said last September it planned to start talks with Eni to carry out another phase of the project that would add a further 100,000 bpd to the field’s output.

Increasing output at Darkhoein is part of Iran’s effort to hike production to 4.5 million bpd by 2010. An Iranian official was quoted earlier this month as saying Iran would hit that target earlier than expected but did not say when….”