Iran announces discovery of new oil and gas fields

Iran's oil minister announced yesterday the discoveries of an oil field and a gas field, estimating the total value of their reserves at $85 billion, a semi-official news agency reported.

Massoud Mirkazemi said the newly-discovered oil field called Soumar was located in the western Kermanshah province.

"This new oil field has reserves of 475 million barrels of oil, of which 70 million barrels are recoverable," he was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency. "If we value the recoverable oil at $70 dollars a barrel, the estimated value of the newly-discovered oil at this field would be $5 billion," he was quoted as saying.

The gas field called Halgan was located about 70km north of the Gulf port of Assaluyeh, he said, adding its daily output could reach some 50 million cubic metres over a two-decade period.

"If we reckon the value of every cubic metre of gas at around $0.30, the value of the gas in this field will be around $80 billion," he said, without saying when production might start.

Iran is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter. It also sits on the world's second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia.

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