Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 30/ Trend M. Moezzi
The National Iranian Oil Company announced it began drilling a second exploratory oil well in the Caspian Sea's deep waters.
The Amir Kabir Semi Submersible Drilling Rig has been moved to the new location in the Sardar-e Jangal field and the last stages of pre-anchoring and anchoring operations are being carried out, Mehr news agency reports.
The drilling of the second exploratory well then began. No foreign companies are involved in the operations. The exploratory well is needed to further identify Sardar-e Jangal's hydrocarbon reserves.
Sardar-e Jangal's discovered layer holds reserves totaling two billion barrels of light crude oil, 500 million of which is extractable.
The Iranian Oil Ministry announced in December 2011 that Iran could discover huge gas reserves (1.4 trillion cubic meters) 700-metres below the Caspian Sea. Then on May 10 it was announced that this field has a huge (eight billion barrels) oil reserves as well. Iran says the oil crude deposit in this (Sardar-e Jangal) field is worth $50 billion reserves.