Malaysian Firm to Study 2 Gas Fields

Malaysia's BIV signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday to study Iran's Golshan and Ferdowsi gas fields in the Persian Gulf.

The agreement was signed in Tehran by Gholamreza Manouchehri, deputy for development and engineering affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company and Shamsul Azhar Abbas, chairman of BIV's board of directors, the Oil Ministry's official news service Shana reported.

According to the terms of the MoU, BIV is given seven months to conduct studies on the gas fields near the southern Bushehr Province.

BIV is a conglomerate headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The primary business operations of BIV are engineering and construction, oil and gas, enhanced oil recovery operations, marketing and trading of crude oil and refined products as well as liquefied natural gas. 

Golshan field is located 65 km offshore the Persian Gulf. The field is estimated to hold between 1.1 trillion and 1.5 trillion cubic meters of natural gas in place.

The Ferdowsi gas field is 85 km off the Persian Gulf coast. The field's in-place gas reserves is estimated at 368 billion cubic meters, around 254 billion cubic meters of which are deemed recoverable.

According to Manouchehri, state-owned Pars Oil and Gas Company has discovered a major oil layer beneath the Ferdowsi gas field. 

The oil layer is projected to hold heavy crude with an API gravity of 8-16, he added.