Iran discovers new gas field in western Iran
By Sara Rajabova
Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ahmad Qalebani has announced that the country has discovered a large gas field with 260 billion cubic feet (bcf) of in-place reserves in western Iran.
He said that the gas field is located in Iran's western province of Ilam, covering an area of 28x4 square kilometers in the eastern part of the province, Press TV reported.
The newly-discovered field also holds nearly 175 bcf of recoverable gas, according to Qalebani.
The Iranian official further said that this is the first sweet gas field to be discovered at an altitude of 1,000 meters.
He described the discovery of this gas field as a great achievement in the country, saying it will have a positive impact on Iran's oil industry despite U.S.-led sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear energy program.
Also, earlier it was reported that the country has explored an underground natural gas reservoir in the Fars province of southern Iran.
According to Iran's Ministry of Petroleum, the volume of recoverable natural gas reserves has increased to more than 33 trillion cubic meters (tcm).
Iran, which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, is making efforts to up its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in South Pars Gas Field.
The South Pars gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are located in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, i.e. the North Dome, is located in Qatar's territorial waters.
Iran's giant offshore South Pars Gas Field, which is shared with Qatar, holds about 14 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of gas, or about eight percent of the total world reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.