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Iran’s natural gas deposits last for 100 years: official

Oil&Gas Materials 4 November 2011 15:59 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.4 / Trend F.Milad/

An official with the National Iranian Oil Company has stated that the country's natural gas reserves will last for 100 years.

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, Mehr news agency quoted Mohammad-Ali Emadi as saying.

He said Iran's crude oil reserves will end within the next 50 years, adding that the country's oil output would rise by one million barrels per day by 2015.

The official went on to say that the country's oil deposits are recoverable by 29 percent on the average.

Iranian oil minister Rostam Qasemi has announced the country's recoverable oil reserves stands at 154.8 billion barrels.

Qasemi noted the new explorations have increased the amount from the previous figure of 151 billion barrels, the Shana news agency reported.

Iran's oil reserves stand at 158 billion barrels, the ISNA news agency reported on Sunday, signaling a slight rise in the Islamic Republic's estimate.

Last October Iran upped its reserves figure to 150.31 billion barrels from a previous estimate of 138 billion barrels in response to neighbor Iraq increasing its estimate.

ISNA did not detailed how the further increase had been calculated but quoted Qasemi as saying his plan to concentrate on extracting crude from fields shared with other countries would boost production.

"By the end of the fifth development plan, the country's oil production must increase to 5.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and this should happen from the country's joint fields," Qasemi underscored.

Officials have put Iran's current output at between 3.6 million and 4 million bpd, with the latest estimate, given by Hormoz Qalavand, head of the state-run National Iranian Southern Oil Company to the Fars news agency, of 3.92 million bpd.

Iran sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia and is trying to grow its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in its South Pars gas field.

The field has 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas (about eight percent of the world's reserves) and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas (LNG) resources.

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