Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 16
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's National Oil Company (NIOC) has rejected reports about discovering huge gas reserves in the country's southern area, Mehr news agency reported Dec. 16.
Earlier Iran's media outlets quoted Hormoz Qalavand, managing director of the NIOC Exploration Department as saying the discovered gas field may be as big as the South Pars gas field and is located south of the country's Fars province, close to Bushehr province.
"The field may cover a large area extended from Fars province to the Strait of Hormuz," Qalavand had said. "It has been confirmed that the field contains massive natural gas, and gas condensate reserve."
It is while the NIOC's Exploration Department emphasized in its denial letter that announcement of discovering any new oil and gas reserves is only under responsibility of oil minister and managing director of the NIOC.
Iran holds 17 percent of the world's proven natural gas reserve and more than one-third of OPEC's reserve.
The country has a high success rate of natural gas exploration, in terms of wildcat drilling, which is estimated at 79 percent compared to the world average success rate of 30 percent to 35 percent, according to Facts Global Energy (FGE).
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