TEHRAN (Iran News) –Director of Exploration of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) says the company is to cooperate with five Asian and one European country in the field of exploration.

Speaking to ILNA, Mehdi Fakour talked about the latest development regarding the Yalda Oilfield and said that they think the field has not only oil but also gas and according to the approval of the NIOC, the second exploration well is under construction and there is no special problem.

He added that the company hands over the exploration results to the producing companies and producing companies should implement the developmental programs on them.

He reiterated that due to the geographical position of South Pars, they expect the reserves of the area are more than what exist now in other words it has great potentials.

Fakour reiterated that the company does not focus only on a certain field unless for its necessity and it is omnipresent in all fields and it will help time sharing and reducing costs. He stated that therefore they defined some projects with five Asian and one European company which cover all geography of Iran and in fact there is issue about certain field and results of all fields are useable and producing companies can do development based on the company’s method.

On cooperation with countries like Russia in exploration projects, he said that NIOC has a study working with Geocom Company of Russia in one of the blocks whose study results will be seen in the Abadan Plain.

Yalda Oilfield is located 30 kilometers east of the South Pars Gas Field in southern Iran.

Two years ago and former director of Exploration of the NIOC Mr. Seyed Ali Moallemi said that there would be some 80 undiscovered fields and some drilling project was underway in the Yalda Oilfield and it is approaching its end.

On Tuesday and in a press conference, Fakour said that Iran discovered new oil reserves in the country’s southwest, the details of which will be announced by Minister of Petroleum Javad Owji in the near future.

Iranian experts have also carried out well-logging on an offshore exploratory block in the Persian Gulf with gas reserves estimated at 30 trillion cubic feet, Fakour announced.

“For the first time, we have achieved the method of aerial magnetometry which is used up to a depth of 7,000 meters below the surface of the earth to identify reservoirs and hydrocarbon fields,” the official said.

The technique involves using unmanned aircraft and magnetometers equipped with georeferencing systems and other navigation instruments to perform magnetic scans.