Iran says it has made a major oil discovery beneath the country’s Ferdowsi gas field off the country’s southern coast in the Persian Gulf, a top Iranian official says.
Ali Vakili, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company said the new layer has an in-place reserve capacity of 34 billion barrels.
“The new oil layer is regarded as one of the biggest layers in the country and it is located beneath Ferdowsi gas field,” Vakili said at a meeting of Iranian oil industry’s senior managers in Tehran on Sunday.
“We are currently digging an oil rig to complete our assessments,” he was quoted by SHANA news agency as saying.
Regarding Iran’s giant South Pars gas field, Vakili said all the wells in phases 9 and 10 have come on stream while phases 15 and 18 will begin production next year.
Phase 12 of the South Pars field is scheduled to come online in 2012, he added.
Last week Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Ahmad Qalehbani said Iran would invest US$3 billion in projects at South Pars bringing the total investment in field to $9 billion in the current Iranian calendar year ending March 20.
Iran sits on the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia and recently revised its oil reserves to 150.31 billion barrels.
