The National Iranian Oil Company’s Director for Exploration Seyyed Mahmoud Mohaddes said on Saturday that more than 847 billion cubic meters of new gas reserves have been discovered during the same period.
The official further stated that five new oil and gas fields, including three gas and four oil layers, were discovered in Iran last year, Mehr News Agency reported.
Mohaddes said the discovery of more hydrocarbon reserves aims to increase the country’s oil and gas production capacities in the long run, adding that his department has planned the discovery of 1.1 billion barrels of crude oil and gas condensate last year.
The official added that the actual amount of oil and condensate discovered last year exceeds 2.87 billion barrels which is 2.6 times higher than the projected goal.
He said although the Iranian Oil Ministry's natural gas discovery target was 280 billion cubic meters last year, the actual discovery figure exceeded 847 billion cubic meters.
On March 3, Mohaddes had announced the discovery of a huge oil field with considerable crude reserves in southern Iran which was among the biggest fields discovered in the country.
A total of 18 heavy and extra heavy oil fields have so far been discovered in Iran, including Ferdowsi oil field in the Persian Gulf, which is one of the country's biggest heavy oil fields with proven reserves of more than 31 billion barrels.
Iran's total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels with about 140 billion barrels of extractable oil. Moreover, heavy and extra heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.
press tv/281
A senior official of the Iranian Oil Ministry says the country’s oil reserves have increased by 2.87 billion barrels during the previous Persian calendar year (ended March 19, 2012).
News ID 181723
