Chairman of Exploration Management Plans at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Masoud Ansari made the remarks while pointing to the successful implementation of the first phase of gas exploration in the Sea of Oman.
He touched upon exploration priorities of NIOC in the current year explaining “exploratory drilling in Kape Dagh region as well as seismic operations in some other regions have been put on the agenda.”
“Medium-scale seismic operations and studies will also be carried out in central areas of the country while exploration activities have been planned for investigating unconventional hydrocarbons in Makran basin and Oman Sea,” he continued.
The official, while pointing to successful implementation of the first phase of gas hydrates project in the Sea of Oman, asserted “results of the first phase of the project have been promising as a good gas reservoir is expected to exist in the region.”
Ansari also said the second phase of the project will become operational via foreign investment in the Sea of Oman and referred to the appropriate balance between exploration and production maintaining “parity between production and exploration is not a reasonable expectation though at times it happens that large fields are discovered which contain much more oil and gas than the anticipated amounts.”
Generally speaking, NIOC and other oil and gas companies tend to conduct exploration parallel with production in order to prevent a fall in their reserves, he continued.
“However, the possibility exists in the gas sector for the exploration to exceed production though only for a limited period of time,” underlined Ansari explaining “for instance, if maximum production is achieved in South Pars joint field, exploration will lag behind production in gas sector as well.”
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