TEHRAN (PIN) – The managing director of National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) here Saturday announced that a field named Paranj was discovered in southern region of the country.

Gholam-Hossein Nozari broke the news on the fourth day of the 12th Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals Exhibition, adding the newly traced field’s in situ oil reserve was estimated at 1.6 billion barrels.

The deputy minister of petroleum said Paranj enjoyed quality light oil, of which 400 to 450 million barrels was derivable through initial recycle and 600 to 650 by secondary recovery.

The NIOC head said the studies on Anaran block indicated the high capacity of Azar oilfield, whose initial deposit was estimated at six to eight billion barrels.

“Gachsaran, Azadegan, Ahvaz, and Marun are the vast fields with huge oil reserves,” said Nozari, explaining that the fields with at least one billion barrels of oil were classified as giant fields.

The news came just some hours after a similar announcement by the NIOC exploration manager who said new crude deposits were discovered in Karanj oilfield in Ahvaz, the capital of southern Khuzestan Province.

Seyed Mahmud Mohaddes talking to reporters in a news session added the drilling operations of Karanj field ended and new resources of crude oil were explored in the region.

“In addition, we break other good news on exploration of new oil and gas reservoirs by September,” vowed the manager.

Mohaddes, however, said the figure could soar when the outcome of exploration operation was determined.

“The country has been divided into 96 exploration regions and contracts on 11 blocks of these regions have been signed and are being put into action currently,” he added.

“Fifteen companies from 12 foreign countries are doing exploration operations in these blocks, investing at least 700 million dollars in the region. “Companies from Norway, Russia, China, Italy, Sweden, Malaysia, Austria, Spain, Chile, India, Brazil, and Thailand are now busy with exploring the 11 blocks in a 7,900 square kilometer area.”

Last month, Nozari confirmed the exploration of new gas reserves in southern province of Fars.

“Geological data show that there are gas deposits in the two cities of Larestan and Fassa in Fars,” he said. Province He said geological surveys and seismographic results proved that the province had the desirable capacity to meet domestic gas need. “We have to keep on drilling in Larestan and Fassa,” said Nozari, adding, “Fars Province is currently producing 120 million cubic meters of gas through its Aghar, Dalan, and Parsian fields, having the potential to turn into a hub for exports of Iran’s gas.”

The ranking official added, “We are conducting more studies on other cities of Fars to discover more hydrocarbon reserves and to find the real potential of the province through speedy seismographic survey. “Oil exploration helps a region develop industry and technology.”

According to Nozari, the country is presently producing 4.2 million barrels of oil per day and the daily gas output amounts to about 300 million cubic meters.

Iran is the world’s second largest oil and gas reserve holders, standing after Saudi Arabia and Russia in these two sectors respectively.

National Iranian South Oil Co. (NISOC) technical manager had already announced that the company had discovered a reservoir with an initial two billion barrels of in-place oil. Hassan Shokrollahzadeh-Behbahani added the company’s experts using three-dimensional (3-D) seismographic data on Bangestan reservoir of Ab-Teimur oilfield explored the new reservoir.

According to the data, the reservoir’s area is about 40 square kilometers, said the official.

Iran is the world’s second largest oil and gas reserve holders, standing after Saudi Arabia and Russia in these two sectors respectively.