By: Oil & gas Middle east

Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad has announced the discovery of significant new gas and oil reserves in the Pazan field, located in the southern part of Fars Province.

According to Shana, the oil ministry’s official news agency, Paknejad said the newly discovered reserves add an estimated 10 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas. “I am grateful to God that today I can share the good news of discovering new gas and oil reserves with our honourable people,” he said. “Exploration efforts in the Pazan field, in southern Fars Province and extending toward northern Bushehr, have led to this important discovery.”

Situated around 21 kilometres from the city of Jam in Bushehr Province, the Pazan field’s exploratory operations have increased Iran’s total in-place gas reserves by 10 tcf, according to the minister. He added that, after an eight-year hiatus in exploration activity, drilling of the second exploratory well was recently completed, resulting in a significant find.

“To put this in perspective,” Paknejad said, “the Pazan field’s new 10 trillion cubic feet of gas—assuming a 70 percent recovery factor—could yield about 7 trillion cubic feet, equivalent to 7,000 days of production from one phase of the South Pars gas field. That’s roughly 17 to 18 years of output from a single South Pars phase—an impressive figure.”

The oil minister said that development work on the Pazan oil and gas field will begin soon, with production expected to start within 40 months. The project’s development contract has already been awarded.

For the first time, exploration teams from the National Iranian Oil Company’s Exploration Directorate drilled into a horizontal layer estimated to contain at least 200 million barrels of crude oil, Paknejad added. “Further studies may reveal even larger reserves,” he said.

Iran holds the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves, and the addition of the Pazan discovery is expected to support the country’s long-term energy balance. “This is a major achievement,” Paknejad said, “and I extend my gratitude to all colleagues involved in this effort and dedicate this success to the Iranian people.”