TEHRAN — National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) has totally drilled 114 wells at the country’s fields during the past seven months of the current Iranian year (started March 21, 2006), an official with the NIDC said here on Wednesday.

The number of the drilled wells has been increased by 16 compared with the corresponding period last year, Ali-Akbar Basefat told the Mehr News Agency in Ahvaz, the capital of the southwestern province of Khuzestan.

He classified drilled wells as 47 development and appraisal wells, 4 exploration wells and 63 drilled for workover operations.

NIDC has finished the drilling of the said wells 32 days ahead of the schedule, he noted.

Basefat explained that NIDC has 49 drilling rigs of which 46 are used for onshore drilling and the rest for offshore drilling operations. The company currently is involved in the drilling of four offshore exploration wells in the Persian Gulf by using Shahid Rajaii drilling rig, he added.