Azerbaijan, Baku, May 5 /Trend F.Milad/
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has developed oil and gas exploration plans worth $1.4 billion, across the country, the Mehr News Agency reported.
The explorations are projected to be executed on 12 offshore and 2 onshore blocks, the report added.
The fifth five-year national development plan of Iran, which ends in March 2016, some 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil and 630 billion cubic meters of natural gas should be added to the country's oil and gas reserves.
The NIOC plans to explore five new oil and gas fields this year, which began on March 20, NIOC Director for Exploration Mahmoud Mohaddes said on April 27.
"Last year, six oil and gas fields were discovered, holding up to 2.87 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves and 847 billion cubic meters of natural gas," Mohaddes added, the ISNA News Agency reported.
Iran ranks the fourth worldwide with 155 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves, next to Venezuela, Saud Arabia and Canada.
On March 3, Mohaddes announced the discovery of a huge oilfield with considerable reserves in southern Iran, which was among the biggest fields discovered in the country.
With 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, Iran has the world's second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia.
In January, an NIOC official stated that the country's natural gas reserves will last up to 100 years.
The Mehr News Agency quoted Mohammad-Ali Emadi as saying that according to Iran's fifth five-year development plan (2010-2015), the country's gas production capacity should increase by 250 million cubic meters per day.
The official went on to say that the country's oil deposits are recoverable by 29 percent on the average.
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