Seismic surveys carried out by Khazar Exploration and Production Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, have shown the likely presence of a massive hydrocarbon formation in Gorgan Plain to the southeast of Caspian Sea, the head of the company's board of directors said.
“KEPCO has drilled 20 exploratory wells in the region near the border with Turkmenistan in Golestan Province. From the data’s evaluation, experts are hopeful about discovering a huge oil and gas field in the region,” Hamshahri Online quoted Emad Hosseini as saying.
Studies are underway with the help of semi-submersible Amir Kabir Drilling Platform, but initial findings indicate that the gas field (tentatively called Chalous Gas Field) holds at least 3.3 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, the 10th largest gas reservoir in the world.
Hosseini said close to 68 billion cubic meters of gas can be extracted from the field per year, which is equivalent to gas production from 11 phases of the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, covering 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.
According to the official, Chalous Field is estimated to contain 2 billion barrels of crude oil in place.
The KEPCO official noted that a master development plan is being drawn up and will be implemented as soon as exploration studies yield desirable results.
Referring to similar projects, Hosseini added that studies are also being conducted on Roudsar Oilfield on the northern side of Caspian Sea. The field is projected to have 30 bcm of gas and 500 million barrels of crude in place.
“The Caspian Sea littoral states are fully aware of the enormous potential of hydrocarbon reserves, that is why Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have allocated large budgets to develop their oil and gas fields, including Shah Deniz Gas Field in the southern flank of the Caspian Sea,” he said.
In December 2011, Iran announced that it has discovered a substantial oil deposit, called Sardar-e-Jangal field, which reportedly contains about 10 billion barrels of oil and 500 million cubic meters of recoverable natural gas. It is located 188 km north of Roudsar in Gilan Province and 250 km northwest of Neka.
In May 2012, another field, called Sardar Melli, was discovered in the same region.
There was a misconception in the past that there are no hydrocarbon reserves in the southern flank of the Caspian Sea, which turned out to be wrong following the discovery of Sardar-e-Jangal Oilfield.
International Community
The Caspian region has long attracted the attention of the international community due to its rich hydrocarbon resources as well as its strategic location at the crossroads of Asia, Europe and the Middle East which can be utilized, inter alia, for the construction of trans-Caspian energy pipelines planned to deliver the region's hydrocarbon reserves to Europe.
Iran is conducting exploratory drilling in the new areas of Caspian Sea with the aim of finding new fields.
Due to the abundance of gas resources in southern Iran, officials have been rather indifferent and averse to exploration and expansion of oilfields in the northern regions. However, NIOC has recently shown special interest in natural energy resources in the Caspian region.
The region, which includes Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Iran, is one of the oldest oil-producing areas in the world and an increasingly important source of global energy production. The area has significant oil and natural gas reserves from both offshore deposits in the sea itself and onshore fields in the region.
Traditionally an oil-producing area, the Caspian area’s importance as a natural gas producer is fast growing. Offshore fields account for 41% of total Caspian crude oil and lease condensate (19.6 billion barrels) and 36% of natural gas (106 trillion cubic feet). In general, most of the offshore oil reserves are in the northern parts of the sea, while most of the offshore natural gas reserves are in the southern regions.
