Azerbaijan, Baku, Jul.16/ Trend F.Milad/
Seven wells, which have been drilled at the Kish gas field in the Persian Gulf, will become operational by the end of the third quarter of the current calendar year (December 20), an official with the National Drilling Company stated.
Mohammad Al-e Khamis told the IRIB that 56,602 metres of drilling had been carried out.
Exploration operations at the Kish gas field show that the natural gas reserves in the field has increased by 26 trillion cubic feet (tcf) to reach 66 tcf, Mahmoud Mohaddes, the National Iranian Oil Company's Director for Exploration said in May.
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 are located in the Kish gas field so development and exploitation of the gas field will foster development of the country.
The development plan of the Kish gas field started in 2007. The field 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.
Iran sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia.