Gas exploration projects on Kish Island began a year ago following the drilling of a 4,300-meter well.

TEHRAN, Dec. 14--A senior hydrocarbon industry official here on Wednesday confirmed reports that a giant gas field has been discovered off the Persian Gulf island of Kish.
Seyyed Mahmoud Mohaddes, the National Iranian Oil Company’s (NIOC) director for exploration affairs, told ILNA that details of the latest finding will be announced in two months as information remains sketchy at present.
“Unless exploration studies are completed, we cannot announce our estimates about the gas field’s reserves,“ he said, adding, however, that it is unlikely that the field will have more gas than South Pars.
Also speaking to ILNA, Hossein Roshandel, deputy head of the NIOC Explorations Affairs Department, said early estimates show the field has huge gas reserves.
He said the final tests have to be carried out before determining the amount of the deposits, stressing that the results of ongoing studies will be made public soon.
“We are trying to be careful about the figures,“ he said.
Gas exploration projects on Kish Island began a year ago following the drilling of a 4,300-meter well.
It is assumed that the reserve is larger than the island itself.

TEHRAN, Dec. 14--A member of board of directors of Iran-China Chamber of Commerce has said that conditions have not yet been prepared for undertaking fresh joint investment between the two countries.
Majid Reza Hariri told ILNA that plans to establish a permanent Chinese trade center in one of the northern Iranian free trade zones is still on hold.
He pointed out that since the two countries are unwilling to launch the projects and abandon them half way through, they will not take any measure until suitable grounds are created.
Hariri said that the volume of bilateral economic exchanges is expected to reach $10 billion by March, 2006, of which $6 billion materialized in the March-September period.
He noted the volume of transactions with China is largely dependent on oil price fluctuations since oil and its derivatives make up 50 percent of trade exchanges between the two countries.
A private trade delegation attended the seminar on investment opportunities in Iran in China late November.

Software exports doubled in the year to March 2005 to reach $10.9 million.

TEHRAN, Dec. 14--Export of software has exceeded $11 million since March, said the vice chairman of Association of Software Exporters here on Wednesday, adding that the figure is expected to reach $15 million by March 2006.
Mohammad Reza Talaei told ILNA that Iranian software products are exported to Germany, Syria, Zimbabwe and Central Asian republics, stressing that the national software industry is willing to export to the Canadian market as well.
“Except for Americans and European firms run by Americans, which do not want to cooperate with Iran, we are ready to export software products to other countries,“ he said, adding that Afghanistan is one of the best target markets for Iranian software products.
The official said that talks are underway with Iraq to export software products to the war-ravaged country.
He called on the government to support the sector by facilitating the participation of Iranian experts in international exhibitions and setting up software marketing offices in other countries.
An e-commerce expert said earlier that presence in Afghanistan’s software market is a golden opportunity for Iranian companies.
Ramin Erfanian, who heads the eCommerce Promotion Organization, further said that Iranian software companies have an advantage over Pakistani, Arab and Indian firms in Afghanistan’s market given the shared culture and language of the two nations.
While Iran has only a few major software companies, it can play a vital role in meeting the Afghan demand for software products, he said.
There are 500 software companies in Iran, suggested statistics released by the Secretariat of the High Council of Information Dissemination earlier.
The report indicated that the software market has grown by 41 percent per annum over the past two years.
Software exports doubled in the year to March 2005 to reach $10.9 million.

TEHRAN, Dec. 14--National Iranian Gas Export Company has reportedly reached an agreement with Armenia under which it will export gas to the former Soviet republic in exchange for electricity import from that country.
Massoud Hojjat, vice chairman of Tavanir Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Company, told ISNA that the exchanges will undertaken as part of efforts to bolster bilateral cooperation, adding that the amounts are not high enough to have an impact on the two countries’ gas and power supplies.
He said that the construction of gas pipeline and power transmission lines have started, adding that National Iranian Gas Export Company will deliver power to Tavanir at the border with Armenia.
The official said that Iran and Armenia exchange power in certain seasons, adding that Iran has started exporting electricity to that country since last month and that it will continue until spring.
“Exchange of power with Armenia is not like buying and selling a product as we export the same amount of power that we have received from that country in summer,“ he said.
Earlier this month, a wind power plant built by Iran under a $3.5 million assistance was inaugurated in Armenia.
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan praised Iranian experts for constructing and inaugurating the first wind power plant in that country, underlining the need for further expansion of all-out ties with Iran.
He also called for more joint investment projects.

TEHRAN, Dec. 14--Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will meet in Vienna in late January to discuss a possible cut in supply, said Oil Minister Seyyed Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh here on Wednesday.
According to ISNA, the minister told reporters upon arrival from Kuwait City, where he attended the OPEC ministerial meeting, that OPEC member-states came to the conclusion that the oil supply-demand situation is balanced at present and that there is no need to maintain the two-million-barrel spare oil stocks.
“We are expecting demand to fall in coming months,“ he said, adding that OPEC will decide about whether or not to cut supply in its extraordinary meeting in late January.
He said the organization once again failed to reach a consensus on the nominee for secretary general, stressing that the issue will be discussed in the regular OPEC meeting in March.
Vaziri-Hamaneh said the organization will have to cut supply in the second quarter of 2006 to prevent a possible drop in prices.
“We (Iran) believe that the $50-a-barrel range is not high,“ he said, adding that the organization will react strongly to possible decrease in oil prices.
“Prices are likely to fall at the end of the cold season,“ he said, adding that the OPEC decision in Kuwait to stabilize output was prudent.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and OPEC’s president sought to reassure consumers on Tuesday that their oil needs would be met despite an OPEC deal that builds a case for an output cut in spring.
Oil raced above $61 after OPEC, which supplies a third of the world’s crude said on Monday that an offer to sell all its two million barrels per day (bpd) of spare oil would lapse at year-end. It also moved to pull output within an official 28 million bpd limit and said the group would meet again on January 31, earlier than expected.
For months OPEC has been pumping at the highest rate for 25 years in response to near-record prices that are filling oil producers’ coffers but hurting world economic growth.