Iran announces discovery of new shale oil reserves

TEHRAN,May 5(MNA) - New reserves of shale oil have been discovered in Iran’s western Lorestan province, Hormoz Qalavand the head of exploration at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) announced on Saturday. However, there is no plan to conduct exploration operations in this regard, he added. NIOC and Norway’s Statoil Hydro signed a deal, worth $50 million, in 2006 for conducting seismic operations. Analyzing data from the operations shows that large amounts of shale oil exist in the region. In April, Qalavand said that Iran plans to start looking for shale oil and gas this year near its border with Iraq. Qalavand said that NIOC is focusing its exploration activities on border areas, adding that the country had found a total number of 15 new oil and gas layers last year, according to Reuters. Iran is already an oil and gas exporter but is struggling to sell as much as its vast conventional reserves should allow due to Western sanctions on its energy industry imposed over its disputed nuclear program. Shale oil and gas projects are typically more expensive than conventional projects but can be attractive to countries that currently rely on imported fuels.