NIOC sees potential for 5b barrels of oil, 227 bcm of gas in southern Fars
Iran expects ongoing exploration in southern Fars Province to uncover about 5 billion barrels of oil and 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, as the country continues drilling near a recently discovered gas field, the National Iranian Oil Company’s exploration chief said.
Mohieddin Jafari said drilling was underway in the Dehno area southeast of the Takht-e gas field, following the discovery of the field, as Iran seeks to identify additional resources in surrounding areas, ISNA reported.
“In addition, we have plans to search for and explore new resources in the lower Dehram and upper Dehram areas,” Jafari added.
Jafari said exploration estimates indicated the potential discovery of about 5 billion barrels of oil and nearly 227 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas, adding that Iran hoped to find the resources using its existing drilling rigs.
The comments follow an announcement earlier in August by Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad that Iran had found a natural gas field in the south of Fars Province containing 212 bcm of gas in place of which 161 bcm are recoverable.
He described the discovery as equivalent to 15 years of production from one phase of South Pars, the world’s largest gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar.
Jafari also said last week that the intrinsic value of the newly discovered gas field in Fars had been estimated at $40 billion, describing it as one of Iran’s most significant gas discoveries in the past two decades.
He added that the gas at the Takht-e field is sweet and does not require a sweetening process, allowing it to move through development and processing more quickly than gas from sour fields.
The exploration campaign is part of a broader push stretching from the southern parts of Fars province into the northern parts of the adjacent Bushehr province. The site is located near the Pazan gas field, where exploration resumed last year after an eight-year pause, resulting in the discovery of an additional 283 bcm of gas in place and 200 million barrels of crude oil.
Iran has relied on domestic investment and expertise to develop its oil and gas fields since 2018, when the United States imposed sweeping sanctions on the country’s energy sector.
Iran has proven natural gas reserves of around 34 trillion cubic meters, making it the world’s second-largest holder of gas reserves after Russia. The country accounts for about 17% of global proven gas reserves.