As time passes, the discovery of hydrocarbon reserves is getting more and more challenging.
Seyyed Saleh Hendi, the head of Exploration Department at the National Iranian Oil Company, made the statement in Fars Province on Monday in a ceremony held in Dashtkouh near Shiraz for launching seismic and geophysical operations in oil and gas fields, the Oil Ministry’s news portal Shana reported.
“It appears that there are no huge oil and gas reserves to be discovered. However, reliance on geophysical and seismic data can help accelerate the discovery of small- and medium-sized fields.”
According to the official, NIOC’s Exploration Department is undertaking nine seismic and geophysical initiatives across the country simultaneously and as soon as they yield positive results, drilling operations will follow.
“Geophysical data, used to provide information on the physical properties of the Earth's surface and subsurface, play a key role in locating hydrocarbons, minerals and other natural resources,” he said.
“Geophysical and seismic data can also be used for geological mapping, hydrology, environmental monitoring, slope stability assessment, infrastructure planning and monitoring, and for studying permafrost.”
In the past 40 years, 73 oil and gas fields have been discovered in Iran and exploration conducted at hydrocarbon fields shows Iran’s recoverable gas reserves have risen by 283 billion.
“They include 36 oilfields and 37 gas fields, 26 of them are joint fields,” Hendi said.
Iran (34 trillion cubic meters) and Russia (32.6 tcm) hold the largest proven gas reserves in the world.
Stringent Standards
In addition to lack of investment, the oil and gas industry is facing new challenges, one of which is its high consumption of water and energy resources, which subjects it to increasingly stringent environmental standards. This constrains them to rethink extraction, production and distribution methods to obtain or maintain their operating license.
They also have to provide guarantees and ensure transparency in the environmental discharge of their activities.
According to Hendi, a total of 19 oil and gas fields, including 48 reservoirs, were discovered in the past eight years.
“As of 2014, 10 gas fields were discovered with total in-place reserves of 2 tcm, as well as nine oilfields containing 60 billion barrels of in-place oil,” he added.
Elaborating on some of the provincial discoveries, the official said the gas fields of Pazan in Fars, Khar-Tang in Bushehr and Charak in Hormozgan provinces, as well as Yadman and Sepehr oilfields in Khuzestan Province, are among major deposits discovered in the period.
The official noted that in-place gas reserves in Khar-Tang and Charak are estimated to be 453 billion cubic meters and 481 bcm, respectively.
“Projections show that Charak also has 174 million barrels of gas condensates,” he added.
On the geographical location of one of the new oilfields, Hendi said Yademan is located close to the Iraqi border in Khuzestan, but is not shared with the western Arab neighbor.
The NIOC official said Eram Gas Field, discovered in 2019, is estimated to hold 538 billion cubic meters of natural gas in place, of which over 368 bcm are recoverable. The gas field is located 200 kilometers south of the provincial capital Shiraz and 60 km north of Asalouyeh. The find was made in a reservoir 3,900 meters below the earth’s surface.
Iran uses natural gas for heating purposes and as feedstock for thermal power stations, which produce more than 80% of its installed electricity generating capacity. Gas is also injected into underground reservoirs to increase crude oil recovery.
With an estimated 157 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, Iran has the world’s fourth–largest oil reserves and the second-largest gas reserves.
Iran is priming its oil and gas fields – and customer relationships – so it can increase production.
In its latest report, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries put Iranian crude output in March at 2.3 million barrels per day, indicating a 137,000-bpd increase compared to the previous month.
Based on OPEC data, Iran’s average crude output in the first quarter of 2021 was near 2.2 million barrels per day – almost 197,000 bpd higher r compared to the last quarter of 2020.
