Iran cannot confirm Indian report of big gas find

TEHRAN, May 11 (Reuters) Iran cannot confirm a report that India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. and partners have found gas reserves of up to 10 trillion cubic feet and 1 billion barrels of oil in a block in Iran, an official said on Friday.

''We do not confirm the news ... which was announced by some Indian media,'' Hossein Roshandel, deputy head of exploration affairs at Iran's Oil Ministry, told the ISNA news agency in response to Wednesday's unsourced report in the Economic Times.

''India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) should give the necessary technical documents to Iran to prove its claim, which has not happened yet,'' he said.

India's Economic Times said testing work in the Farsi block was still being done and the actual extent of the reserves was not yet ascertained.

ONGC has not commented on the figures in the newspaper report but on Thursday it said it had found oil and gas in the Farsi block. [ID:nDEL330045] The block is operated by ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of state-owned ONGC, along with India's top refiner Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. and smaller explorer Oil India Ltd.

Last year, Iran -- the world's fourth largest oil exporter which also sits atop the largest gas reserves after Russia -- said ONGC Videsh had found oil in the Farsi block.

REUTERS SR HS2040