Iran’s enigmatic energy exploration in Caspian Sea

Iranian media outlets have reported contradictory information about drilling the second well of a gas field in the Caspian Sea which was reportedly discovered in December 2011.

The Iranian Mehr News Agency reported on September 30, 2012 that the National Iranian Oil Company announced it had begun drilling a second exploratory oil well in the Caspian Sea's deep waters, while a week after this information, head of the Iran's North Drilling Company told Shana that the submersible Amir Kabir rig was moved to another place to drill a second exploratory well in the Sardar-e Jangal gas field in a month.

On the other hand, a European top diplomat anonymously told Trend on Jan.14 that "according to satellite observations, the location of this rig (Amir Kabir) has not changed from December 2011 to December 2012 and no sign of thermal activity was observed above this rig during the aforementioned period".

Iran claims the Sardar-e Jangal field's discovered oil and gas layers hold reserves totalling two billion barrels of light crude oil, 500 million of which is extractable alongside 1.4 trillion cubic meters of gas.