According to Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC) website, while experiments are still in progress, the drilling operation was also continued at 70 meters of the reservoir, reaching a total depth of 4050 meters, said Ali Abbasi Larki, the project manager for offshore drilling and comprehensive gas field studies.

"The progress was slow as the circumstances of formation were tough at Aghashale layer," said Abbasi, adding that the drilling of Well No. 3 at Kish gas field the drilling is expected to complete within the next two months

By now, more than $49 million has been spent for the project from internal funds of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

Also, a call for tender was released for Well No. 4 of Kish gas field, in which 16 companies, including Khatamol Anbia Construction Base, National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) and Sepanta, have made their bids.

"For launching drilling operations at Well No. 4 of Kish gas field, an investment of $60 million is needed", said Abbasi. "Drilling operations at Well No. 4 are expected to start in this September and last for about a year."

Once drilling operations at the wells No. 3 and No. 4 are completed, more precise data will be acquired from this gas reservoir.

It is estimated that there exists 514 million barrels of initial in-situ gas condensates of, and 360 million cubic feet of producible gas in this gas field.

Kish Island is located 15 kilometers south of the Persian Gulf shoreline in Iran.

Kish gas reserves lie at a depth of 3800 to 4300 meters. The gas field's length is about 32.2 kilometers, has a length of 22.5 kilometers and a depth of 480 meters.

Kish gas field was explored in 1968 following drilling of an onshore exploratory well. Later, in 2005, the exploratory well No. 2 was drilled which indicated of having about 48 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.

Well No. 3 is an offshore well located 7 kilometers away from southwest of Kish Island.

TMM