Mr Ahmad Qalehbani director of NIOC said that the National Iranian Oil Company attaches the top priority to the development of joint oil and gas fields. He referred to the key role of explorations in the oil sector adding development plans at border areas are of high importance.

Iran has announced that it will implement 11 plans by the Iranian calendar month of Mordad 1392 with the goal of boosting oil production by 175,000 barrels per day.

The plans are related to the first phase of the development plans of the Yadavaran, Sarvestan, Saadatabad, Hengam, Forouzan, Reshadat, Aban and Paydar oilfields. Once all the phases of the development plans are implemented, the output will be increased by 500,000 barrels per day.

Mr Qasemi said that the country's oil output is projected to increase by 1.5 million barrels per day by 2016. All development plans related to joint oil and gas fields will by finalized by the end of the H1 of the current Iranian calendar year.

In July, Mr Qasemi announced that new oil reserves of up to 6 billion barrels have been discovered in southwestern Iran. The reserves are located around the Yadavaran oilfield in Khuzestan Province. With the new oil discovery, Iran's oil reserves stand at about 160 billion barrels, ranking ranks fourth worldwide after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

Source - Trend News Agency

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