Azerbaijan, Baku, May 11/ Trend F.Milad/
The exploration operation at the Kish gas field, located in the Persian Gulf, shows that natural gas reserves in the field has increased by 26 trillion cubic feet (tcf) to reach 66 tcf, an official with the National Iranian Oil Company stated.
Mahmoud Mohaddes, the NIOC director for exploration told the Mehr News Agency that explorations are underway in the region to find new natural gas deposits.
Drilling operations at the Kish gas field had progressed by 70 per cent, the National Drilling Company of Iran deputy director stated.
"Some 60,000 metres of drilling will be carried out," Mehran Makvandi added, the Shana News Agency reported.
Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi has said that the National Iranian Oil Company and its subsidiaries should finish drilling wells as soon as possible and start gas production.
He said the bulk of Iran's gas reserves is located in the Kish gas field, so development and exploitation will foster development of the country. The development plan of the Kish gas field started in 2007. It holds around 66 trillion cubic feet of in-situ gas and 514 million barrels of condensates.
Iran has the second largest proven gas reserves in the world after Russia. Iraq has said that it needs 10 to 15 million cubic meters of Iranian gas each day.
Iran's natural gas production capacity stands at around 554 million cubic meters per day, the National Iranian Gas Company's spokesman said on February 5.
Majid Boujarzadeh told the Pana News Agency that taking the imported gas from Turkmenistan into account, some 600 million cubic meters of natural gas is supplied across the country each day.
Iran exported over 7.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas last year which ended on March 19, up 10.5 per cent compared with the same period last year.