Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 27
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
The National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) drilled about 159 kilometers of oil and gas wells using its drilling fleet during the first half of the current Iranian fiscal year (started March 20), Hamid Reza Khoshayand, deputy managing director of NIDC, said.
The company has carried out drilling of 98 offshore and onshore oil and gas wells during the six-month period, Khoshayand said, ISNA news agency reported Sept. 27.
The wells included 32 delineation wells, one exploratory and 65 repairing and developmental ones, he said.
The National Iranian South Oil Fields Company (NISOC) shared 55 of the drilled wells, followed by Iranian Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (28 wells), Iranian Offshore Oil Company (seven wells), Iranian Central Oil Fields Company (four wells) he said, adding that four wells also were drilled for Sarvak Azar Engineering and Development Company and Arvandan Oil and Gas Company.
Khoshayand further said that currently NIDC owns 75 light, heavy and ultra-heavy onshore and offshore drilling rigs which are operational under the supervision of the National Iranian South Oil Fields Company (40 rigs), Iranian Offshore Oil Company, Petroleum Engineering and Development Company, Iranian Central Oil Fields Company, Pars Oil and Gas Company, Sarvak Azar Engineering and Development Company, and Arvandan Oil and Gas Company.
He added that 14 and 17 drilling rigs are operating at the South Pars gas field and West Karoun joint oil fields, respectively.
By holding 157.8 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves, Iran possesses the world's fourth largest reserves of crude oil. The Islamic Republic also holds 34 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves, sharing 18.2 percent of total global gas reserves, which puts the country in the top of the world's gas holders list.