NIOC: Offshore oil, gas exploration to resume in Persian Gulf
Iran plans to resume offshore oil exploration activities in shared border areas with neighboring countries in the Persian Gulf for the first time after a five-year hiatus, according to a senior Oil Ministry official.
Mohyeddin Jafari, head of Exploration Directorate at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) expressed hope that Iran’s offshore exploration activities in shared border areas with neighboring countries would commence this year, adding that operations had been suspended since 2019 due to offshore rig limitations, Tasnim reported.
“With the support of the Oil Ministry and the NIOC, and in collaboration with the Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC), we successfully held a tender and selected a contractor with an offshore rig,” Jafari said.
“Through this tender, for the first time in five years, we managed to sign a contract for an offshore rig in the exploration sector,” he added.
In an interview with the ministry’s official website, Jafari noted that over the past six months, the Exploration Directorate had focused its efforts on the two critical phases of studies and operational execution.
“What we have been planning during this period, particularly under the current administration, is to conduct a precise assessment of exploration activities over the past 30 years,” he stated.
Highlighting key objectives, he said, “One of our most important goals in the current administration is to accelerate exploration speed in drilling operations by increasing the number of rigs and in geophysical operations through modern equipment. If we succeed in these two areas, we can double the pace of discoveries.”