TEHRAN, April 25 (Shana) �- A senior official with Iran's Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) says the country enjoys vast shale gas reserves in the western province of Lorestan.

Addressing a press conference in Tehran, Mohammad Reza Kamali, director of RIPI's upstream faculty, said huge reserves of shale gas have been located in the region.

He said the faculty is currently working on a project to locate unconventional oil and gas reserves in Iran and the studies are now 47% complete.

Kamali said RIPI is cooperating with RWTH Aachen University for carrying out the studies. Aachen is a leading center in shale oil and gas exploration studies.
He further said RIPI has recently found gas hydrates in the sea of Oman which are located 2,000 km beneath the sea bed whi

"There are also potential natural gas reserves in the region," he added.
He further said there are studies that indicate there might be a joint oil field in Kopet Dag region with Turkmenistan.

By SHANA