TEHRAN -- Iran's Oil Minister, Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, declared, "The major structures in southern Caspian area which are likely to contain petroleum, have been identified." On the sidelines of the first conference on the project management held here Sunday, Zanganeh told reporters, "The oil ministry jointly with shell oil, Lasmo Oil and Veba oil have gained some data on the southern Caspian oil resources." He said that according to the data obtained in the seismographic survey conducted on a great part of south Caspian area by the Oil Ministry, which complements the available data, the major structures likely to contain petroleum have been identified.

However, according to him, a precise assessment of the proven resources will only be available once the drilling operations get underway.

"A drilling apparatus is already available in the Caspian area which is quite suitable for drilling into depth of 100 meters," he said. "While the recently discovered structures are located at the depths ranging between 400-900 meters," he added.

Zanganeh recalled that the installation agreement of the drilling apparatus was signed in 2000 and that the installing operations have gone underway as of last year.

Referring to the fact that its installation is to be completed in 30 months' time, he recalled that one year is already passed since the beginning of the operations.

Iran's oil minister hoped for the on-time installation of the drilling apparatus to enable the drilling operations in the Caspian area to get underway as soon as possible.

He pointed to the investment on the primary stage of the drilling operations in the Caspian Area, which will amount to approximately $300 million.

With regards to the interest of Gasprom Co. to participate in the project to transfer Iranian Gas to India, he said, "Gasprom is interested in taking part in the project, but we have not yet come to the stage of selecting our partner or contractor." He added, "A general understanding should first be reached with the major consumers in the area and once the survey on the technical and economic facilities of the project is completed and the project is finalized, a partner might be selected." According to him, the Oil Ministry is currently negotiating various gas companies including BG, BP, Total, Repsol and Shell on the construction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) units.

He also referred to the four stages of investment on LNG projects as production and transfer of natural gas to surface, refinement, desalination and liquefaction of gas, providing required equipment and building ships for transfer of gas as well as providing the equipment for LNG evacuation at the destination market and its reliquefaction.

According to him, the indicated stages is to be undertaken by the party who is to invest on LNG projects.