Exploring 5 new oil and gas fields on agenda in Iran

TEHRAN,April 28(MNA) - The National Iranian Oil Company plans to explore five new oil and gas fields in the current calendar year, which began on March 20, the NIOC's Director for Exploration Mahmoud Mohaddes said. “Last year, six oil and gas fields were discovered, holding up to 2.87 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves and 847 billion cubic meters of natural gas,” Mohaddes added. Iran ranks the fourth worldwide with 155 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves, next to Venezuela, Saud Arabia and Canada. On March 3, Mohaddes announced the discovery of a huge oilfield with considerable reserves in southern Iran, which was among the biggest fields discovered in the country. With 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, Iran has the world's second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia. In January, an NIOC official stated that the country’s natural gas reserves will last up to 100 years. The Mehr News Agency quoted Mohammad-Ali Emadi as saying that according to Iran’s fifth five-year development plan (2010-2015), the country’s gas production capacity should increase by 250 million cubic meters per day. He also said that Iran’s crude oil reserves will end by the next 50 years, adding that the country’s oil output would rise by one million barrels per day by 2015. The official went on to say that the country’s oil deposits are recoverable by 29 percent on the average.