Iran oil official reveals major new discoveries

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Iran has announced that it has made new oil and gas discoveries with reserves that could be worth as much as US$85 billion to the Gulf state.

The news came after the Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi announce da new field, Soumar, located in the western Kermanshah province of Iran.

"This new oil field has reserves of 475 million barrels of oil, of which 70 million barrels are recoverable Mirkazemi is quoted by Mehr News Agency as saying.

"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 added.

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Mirkazemi also revealed that a gas field called Halgan, located about 70 kilometres north of the Gulf port of Assaluyeh, could have a daily production of 50 million cubic metres over the next 20 years.

"If we reckon the value of every cubic metre of gas at around 30 US cents, the value of the discovered gas in this field will be around $80 billion," he said.