Deputy Director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for Exploration Affairs Bahman Soleimani expounded on new oil and gas discovery projects in the Sea of Oman saying “NIOC seeks to carry out exploration activities in Oman Sea region in the future.”
“No discovery or drilling project has yet been implemented in the Sea of Oman though the Sixth National Development Plan has envisaged conduction of further studies and exploratory drilling in the region,” said the official asserting that necessary measures have been put on the agenda.
Soleimani went on to stress that a relevant research project in partnership with Research Institute of Petroleum Industry has yielded proper results; “geology and geochemistry studies on the northern coast of Oman Sea in the Makran area is being seriously pursued by Exploration department of NIOC as well as that Phase II of research studies are being defined and are on the verge if implementation.”
The official, while noting that exact amount of oil and gas resources in the Sea of Oman is still unknown, reiterated that primary studies are promising of satisfactory estimations.
Deputy NIOC director said Oman Sea was at most 150 meters deep and the exploratory drilling will be executed at the sea bottom; “depth of the sea in areas under exploration varies between 70 to 150 meters.”
Bahman Soleimani recalled that the most recent well drilled in the Persian Gulf reached a depth of 4,300 meters from seabed emphasizing that exploratory drilling could go as deep as 6.5 kilometers in the Persian Gulf.