Iran’s Oil Ministry has updated information about a new gas field discovered south of the country, saying the reservoir holds some 19 trillion cubic feet (around 540 billion cubic meters) of natural gas.
A deputy director of the National Iranian Oil Company said on Sunday that the new natural gas field, dubbed Eram, is located 200 kilometers south of the provincial capital of Shiraz and 60 kilometers to the north of Assaluyeh, a port on the Persian Gulf where Iran’s sprawling gas processing installations are located.
Reza Dehqan said the integrated reservoir is around 50 kilometers long and five kilometers wide, adding that it contains some 13 trillion cubic feet of extractable natural gas of the sweet type as well as 385 million barrels of gas condensates.
Dehqan said the reservoir can supply the natural gas consumed in a city of 12 million people like Tehran for 16 years, adding that production from the field could last for 40 years, generating some $40 billion in revenues.
He said the discovery of the gas field might go unnoticed as Iran sits on some of the largest gas reserves in the world, including the South Pars gas filed that is shared with Qatar.
“If such a discovery takes place in another country, that would be taken very seriously,” said Dehqan, adding that the reservoir in Eram gas field has a thickness of around 400 meters, a significant thickness of its type.
He said gas produced from Eram could be used as feed for refineries in southern Iran, including those that process natural gas produced in the South Pars.
The official said drilling at the site began earlier this year and took almost nine months to reach a depth of 4,632 meters where natural gas was discovered. He added that exploration activities around the gas field, including seismic studies had started several years ago.
Dehqan said the discovery would bring Iran’s total proven gas reserves to 34 billion cubic meters (1.2 quadrillion cubic feet), adding that more than 75 percent of the reservoirs across the country have been discovered after Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979.
