Hossein Roshandel, NIOC exploration and foreign participation deputy, told PIN that the group aimed at offering data on specifications of Iran’s Farsi offshore block, 90 km off Bushehr port.

ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas arm of the ONGC, discovered oil in Farsi block.

“We have now made a natural gas discovery in the fourth and final commitment well in the block,” a top company official said.

OVL has a 40 percent stake in the 6,700 square kilometer Persian Gulf block. Indian Oil has a similar stake while Oil India has the remaining 20 percent stake in the block.

The official said the reserves were under appraisal, but some estimates put the in-place gas reserves at 10 trillion cubic feet and oil reserves at one billion barrels.

Roshandel, however, said the figure was not approvable until the technicians confirmed it.

“We are now waiting for the ONGC’s final report on Farsi block,” he added.

Under the contract with the Iranian government, OVL cannot take oil and gas found in the block to India.

“We have a service contract under which we are paid a prefixed return on the investment we make,” the company said.

OVL will now present a development plan to the Iranian authorities for bringing to production the oil and gas finds in the block. Iran will pay a 35 percent rate of return (ROR) to the consortium on the expenditure it made during exploration.

Last year, the company found oil traces in the first well it drilled. The second well flowed 2,000 barrels per day of oil, while the reserve was a little less in the third well. The fourth well was drilled by ONGC’s Kedarnath rig to a depth of 3,400 meters.