Iran to start layer drilling south pars gas

Souri told the oil ministry's website, Shana, that the company has gained permissions to buy or lease a floating storage vessel, adding that negotiations to this end would start in coming weeks as well. He said that a drilling rig would be dispatched to shared part of the layer this Iranian month (ending on May 20) while another drilling rig will start operations in the independent sector in the next Iranian month as of May 21. Souri noted that drilling of 7 thousand meters in layer A2 had been completed and drilling another 7 thousand meters is slated to start next month. If floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit starts operations on schedule, oil production from the layer will come on line at the end of the current year or early next year, he said. "Development of the layer needs 800 million dollars of investment," Souri said. Souri concluded that initial production from the South Pars oil layer is estimated at 35 thousand barrels per day.