‘Iran discovers massive helium reserve’

The managing director of Iran’s Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) says Iran has discovered the world’s biggest helium reserve in its South Pars gas field.

POGC chief Mousa Souri said Iran has signed an agreement with a Russian company to complete the feasibility studies for the new gas reserve, Mehr news agency reported on Friday.

The official put the volume of the world’s helium reserves at 40 billion cubic meters, adding that the South Pars gas field holds 10 billion cubic meters of the total amount.

According to official data released by Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum, Iran has exploited more than 428 billion cubic meters of gas from the joint South Pars gas field in the first five months of the current Iranian year (started March 21), the report added.

The South Pars gas field is shared by Iran and Qatar. The Iranian share, which is divided into 24 phases, has about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas or about eight percent of the total world reserves and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.