Iran has discovered "rich" oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea, reported Iran's News Agency (IRNA), quoting a local newspaper as saying.
The Persian daily `Iran' said "the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has estimated the total volume of the new reserves at 10 billion barrels of oil as well as 560 billion square meters of gas."
The discovery operations were carried out on 10,000 square kilometers of a field by the NIOC in cooperation with the British LASMO and Royal/Dutch Shell companies over an 18-month span, the paper said.
The cost of production for each barrel of oil was between five and seven US dollars, said the paper, adding that several foreign companies have announced readiness to invest in the field.
The Caspian Sea has vast reserves of oil and natural gas, but some of its five littoral states such as Iran, Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, have differing ideas on how the resources should be partitioned, said IRNA.
Meanwhile, the Islamic republic announced Tuesday that it completed the construction of an oil pipeline, which is expected to carry some 50,000 barrels of oil each day from coastal states of the Caspian Sea from the Iranian port of Neka to Tehran Oil Refinery, reported the Tehran Times newspaper.
The second phase of the project, said the paper, is to be built at the end of March, 2002. Once completed, it will transport some 117,000 barrels of oil each day -- Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
