Iranian specialists discover two new oil fields in Khuzestan

A senior Iranian oil industry official says Iranian specialists have found two new oil fields in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.

Hormoz Qalavand, managing director of the National Iranian South Oil Company, said Friday that the discovery followed seismographic operations in the oil-rich province.

“After seismographic operations on Zilaei and Ab-Teimur oil fields and analysis of seismic data…existence of new [oil-containing] anticlines in southern oil-rich regions of Khuzestan Province has been proven,” Fars News Agency quoted him as saying.

He added that drilling a new well in Ab-Teimur oil field has revealed a new reservoir measuring 3 kilometers (km) by 10 km with a 200-meter oil layer.

The official said the oil contained in the reservoir is similar to Ab-Teimur’s crude oil in quality, but exact amount of reserves will be determined after drilling more wells.

Qalavand stated that seven more anticlines containing oil and gas reserves have been discovered in Zilaei region near Masjed Soleiman city and existence of oil and gas reserves has been proven by drilling two wells.

“These reserves measure 3 km by 8 km [in size] and contain about 80 billion cubic meters of natural gas,” he said.

“The new discoveries will have great [positive] impact on international approaches, relations and equations in favor of our country,” the managing director added.

Ab-Teimur oil field is located 25 km west of the city of Ahvaz between two important Mansouri and Ahvaz oil fields. Zilaei oil field is located 115 km north of Ahvaz.

On February 12, head of Exploration Department of the National Iranian Oil Company, Mahmoud Mohaddes, announced that his department had appropriated USD 435 million to oil and gas exploration projects during the last Iranian calendar year (ended March 20, 2012).

A total of 18 heavy and extra heavy oil fields have so far been discovered in Iran, including Ferdowsi oil field in the Persian Gulf, which is one of the country’s biggest heavy oil fields with proven reserves of more than 31 billion barrels.

Iran’s total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels with about 140 billion barrels of extractable oil. Moreover, heavy and extra heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.