NIOC develops oil and gas exploration plans worth $1.4 billion

TEHRAN, May 5 (MNA) - The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has developed nationwide oil and gas exploration plans worth $1.4 billion. The explorations are projected to be carried out at 12 offshore and two onshore blocs. The Fifth Five-Year National Development Plan of Iran, which ends in March 2016, will see some 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil and 630 billion cubic meters of natural gas added to the country’s oil and gas reserves annually. The NIOC plans to explore five new oil and gas fields this year, which began on March 20, the NIOC Director for Exploration Mahmoud Mohaddes said on April 27. “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 for oil reserves, with 155 billion barrels of recoverable oil, after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Canada. On March 3, Mohaddes announced the discovery of a huge oilfield with considerable reserves in southern Iran, which is among the biggest fields ever discovered in the country. With 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, Iran has the world's second-largest gas reserves after Russia. In January, an NIOC official stated that the country’s natural gas reserves will last up to 100 years.