Iran envisages $50b investment to explore oil, gas fields in Caspian Sea

TEHRAN,Dec.24 (MNA)--Iranian oil ministry envisaged investing up to $50 billion to explore oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea, a member of parliament said on Friday. “In a recent meeting with the oil minister, he elaborately explained on plans to explore oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea,” Ali-Asghar Yousefnejad stated. Iran announced on December 11 it has discovered a large gas field in the Caspian Sea with at least 50 trillion cubic feet (some 1.4 trillion cubic meters) of reserves. The field, in waters 700 meters deep, lies wholly within Iran’s territorial waters, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi explained. He added excluding this new discovery Iran has 11 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves in the Caspian Sea. Qasemi also announced that Iran is now the sole country in the region which has found access to the technology to drill wells in deep waters. Previously, deputy oil minister Mohsen Khojaste-Mehr told that extensive operations are underway to explore new gas deposits across the country which will probably increase the country’s proven gas reserves. The Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015) has envisaged boosting the country’s gas production by 250 million cubic meters per day to reach 1.4 billion cubic meters per day. Second to Russia, Iran holds the world’s second-largest gas reserves, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy in June.