The Effect of Production Sharing, Buyback, and Iranian Petroleum Contracts on the Optimal Production and Drilling Paths of Yadavaran Field: A Dynamic Optimization Approach

The purpose of this study is to compare the economic efficiency of Iran's petroleum contracts, buyback contracts, and production-sharing contracts. This study also determined the optimum path for production and drilling operations in the Yadavaran oil field which has special importance because it is a joint field with Iraq. It was estimated using real field data and the SQP algorithm by MATLAB software. First, the objective function, the constraints of each contract model, and the cost function are defined and expressed based on field data. For the objective function, the oil price is determined based on the reference price scenario and based on the forecast of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Cao et al (2009) 's cost function model is also modified by using historical field data (first development phase data) to be applied to the study field. The results show that the most efficient oil contract is the Iran petroleum contract, with a low floor for capital costs and no limit to the number of drilled wells. it was proved that the buyback contract with the ceiling of capital costs incompatible with the recovery coefficient has recorded the lowest efficiency. Also, the Iran petroleum contract can be a good alternative to the buyback contract, because it can well solve the problems of the buyback contract, especially for joint oil fields where the priority of the objective function of the maximum cumulative production over the objective function of the maximum present value of the total profit is more desirable.