TEHRAN — The National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) has carried out 19,834 meters of drilling operations on 35 oil and gas wells in the first half of the current Iranian year (started March 21, 2006), the head of Drilling Department at the NIDC said here on Tuesday.

Out of 35 wells, 26 have been worked over and dilled, Hossein Shurab noted, adding, NIDC has implemented drilling operations by using 12 drilling rigs.

He also said that the company has finished drilling of two wells at Paydar oilfield, and it is planning to complete the drilling of more three wells by November.

Shurab went on to say that NIDC has implementation of workover operations at three wells and the diverted drilling of one more well at Khangiran gas field on agenda. The workover operations include standardizing in-well line, re-perforation plus acidizing and reviving wells, he added.

He named other activities underway by NIDC as the drilling of 29 wells in Shanol, Varavi, and Homa gas fields with the total depth of 80,396 meters. The fields will totally produce 37.5 million cu. m. of gas per day, which will feed the second phase of Parsian Gas Treatment Plant, he added.

Further in his remarks, Shurab stated that NIDC has finished the repairing operations at eight wells and the drilling of two exploration wells at the gas fields in the operation area of Southern Zagros Oil and Gas Production Company — an affiliate to the National Iranian Central Oilfields Company.

He also said that NIDC has finished the drillings planned for the first stage at Tang-e Bijar gas field, and it has started the second stage of drilling operations at the field. Noting that 8,422 meters of drillings has been so far carried out at the field, he added that Tang-e Bijar gas field is being developed within two phases with the total capacity to produce 10 million cu. m. of natural gas per day. The field is developed with the aim of meeting the demands in the western province of Ilam, he stated.