TEHRAN June 24(Shana)--The state-of-the-art drilling rig for spudding the oil layer of the giant South Pars gas field has been transferred to the region, south of Iran, said drilling manager at Drilling Company International (DCI).

Fazel Jamalzadeh said this is the second rig which was transferred to the region last week and is equipped with the latest developments in drilling techniques.
He said the rig arrived to Iranian territorial waters a week ahead of the schedule.

The pre-startup of the oil layer platform of the giant offshore South Pars gas field is 90% complete, managing-director of Iran Offshore Industries Company said earlier.
Farshid Seyed Hosseini said the platform has a capacity of processing 35,000 b/d of crude oil.

He said the platform is expected to be delivered to the contractor, Petroiran Development Company, in two weeks.
He said construction of the platform, weighing 890 tons, was supposed to start in 2006, but it did not happen due to insufficient resources.

The outsourcer in this project is National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
South Pars gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.

The field is estimated to contain a significant amount of natural gas, accounting for about eight percent of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.

By SHANA