Azerbaijan , Baku, Feb. 28 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /
Iran plans to begin drilling the first offshore oil and gas wells by using new domestic technologies under the Fifth Five Year Development Plan (2011-2016), Mehr News Agency reported quoting Iranian Deputy Oil minister Mohammad Reza Moghadam as saying.
According to Moghadam, the new technology will be applied to increase hydrocarbon production of secondary oil reservoirs.
The National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC), a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), has drilled 159 oil and gas wells in onshore and offshore fields of the country over eleven months of the current Iranian calendar year ending March 20, 2011, deputy managing director of the NIDC for drilling operations, Mohammad Reza Takaydisaid earlier.
The company drilled 77 wells developmental and five exploration well, while repaired 77.
Takaydi said they succeeded to drill 30 wells more as compared to the similar period last year.
The company owns 65 drilling rigs and the drilling depth range 326,000 meters of oil and gas wells in 10 provinces of the country in the first eleven months of current Iranian year, up by 12,600 meters as compared to same period of last year.
It is planned to increase the drilling depth to 360,000 meters by the end of the current Iranian calendar year.
The company has offered engineering and technical services in 6.174 cases over the last eleven months, or up by 5 percent compared to a year earlier, Takaydi said.
Earlier Iran's deputy minister of petroleum for planning and supervision on hydrocarbon resources, Mohsen Khojastemehr said 2,400 oil wells will be drilled over the Fifth Five Year Development Plan lasting by 2016.
Khojastemehr also said that some $150 billion would be invested in the upstream sector over the Fifth Five Year Development Plan of which $40 billion would be allocated to well drilling.
NIDC as a subsidiary of NIOC in upstream sector is in charge of 90 percent of drilling of oil and gas wells across the county. The company was established in 1979.