Iran’s newly found gas field has 8 billion barrels of crude oil

Mehr News - The huge gas field, which has been recently discovered in Iran’s territorial waters in the Caspian Sea, holds an estimated 8 billion barrels of crude oil, the managing director of Khazar Oil Company announced on Monday.

“An exploratory well has been drilled in the gas field to give new details on its hydrocarbon reserves,” the Shana new agency quoted Ali Osouli as saying.

Iran announced on Sunday it has discovered a large gas field in the Caspian Sea with at least 50 trillion cubic feet (some 1.4 trillion cubic meters) of reserves.

The field, in waters 700 meters deep, lies wholly within Iran’s territorial waters, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi explained on Sunday.

He added excluding this new discovery Iran has 11 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves in the Caspian Sea.

Qasemi also announced that Iran is now the sole country in the region which has found access to the technology to drill wells in deep waters.

Deputy Oil Minister Mohsen Khojaste-Mehr had told the Mehr News Agency that extensive operations are underway to explore new gas deposits across the country which will probably increase the country’s proven gas reserves.

The Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015) has envisaged boosting the country’s gas production by 250 million cubic meters per day to reach 1.4 billion cubic meters per day.

Iran holds the world’s second-largest gas reserves, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy in June. Russia has the biggest reserves of the fuel, BP data show.