Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said the newly discovered reserves adds an estimated 10 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas. “I am grateful to God that today I can share the good news of discovering new gas and oil reserves with our honorable people,” he said. “Exploration efforts in the Pazan field, in southern Fars Province and extending toward northern Bushehr, have led to this important discovery.”

The Pazan field lies about 21 kilometers from the city of Jam in Bushehr Province. According to Paknejad, exploratory operations have increased Iran’s total in-place gas reserves by 10 trillion cubic feet. He added that after an eight-year hiatus in exploration activity at the site, drilling of the second exploratory well was recently completed, leading to this significant achievement.

“To put this in perspective,” he said, “the Pazan field’s new 10 trillion cubic feet of gas—assuming a 70 percent recovery factor—could yield about 7 trillion cubic feet, equivalent to 7,000 days of production from one phase of the South Pars gas field. That’s roughly 17 to 18 years of output from a single South Pars phase—an impressive figure.”

Development work to begin soon

Paknejad said the development contract for the Pazan oil and gas field has been awarded and that operations are expected to begin soon. Production from the field is projected to start within 40 months.

He also noted that for the first time, exploration teams from the National Iranian Oil Company’s Exploration Directorate drilled into a horizontal layer estimated to contain at least 200 million barrels of crude oil. “Further studies may reveal even larger reserves,” he said.

Iran, he added, holds the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves, and the addition of this new discovery will help address future supply imbalances. “This is a major achievement, and I extend my gratitude to all colleagues involved in this effort and dedicate this success to the Iranian people,” Paknejad said.