27-08-08 Many oil reserves in Iran's continental shelf in the Persian Gulf have not yet been tapped, said managing director of National Iranian Offshore Oil Company. Mahmoud Zirakchian-Zadeh put the total oil reserves in the Persian Gulf in 2005 at 51 bn barrels and said that the figure has reached 93 bn following extraction operations in the past three years.
"This shows there are still many undiscovered oil resources in the area," he said.

Commenting on the huge natural gas reserves in the Persian Gulf, Zirakchian-Zadeh said that proven gas reserves in the country currently stand at 28 tcm, 50 % of which pertains to South Pars Gas Field and the rest to other fields, most of which are located in the Persian Gulf. He added that Golshan, Ferdows, Kish, Lavan and Farour in Persian Gulf are all rich in natural gas reserves.
Putting investment in Persian Gulf oil and gas reserves in the year to March at $ 7 bn, he further said that last year, a total of $ 5 bn was invested in the area, which was one and half times the figure for the year earlier.

He projected that some $ 50 bn will be required to develop Persian Gulf gas and oil reserves until the end of the fifth five-year economic development plan (2015).
Stating that Iran has 100 years and 50 years of experience in oil and gas extraction respectively, he said that his company was the first to bring special extraction technology to the country.