Iran has increased its oil reserve estimate to 150.31 billion barrels leapfrogging Iraq’s recent revision of its own crude estimate last week of 143.1 billion barrels, putting the Islamic Republic back in third place after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
The announcement comes days ahead of an OPEC meeting on Thursday where members of the oil producers cartel are likely to maintain their supply target.
Iran’s Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi said that: “Our oil reserves are today at 150.31 billion barrels,” compared with the previous figure of 138.0 billion barrels.
“Our calculations are still ongoing. This figure is from a six months report based on production information and new discoveries,” Mirkazemi said.
The minister also announced that a new gas field has been discovered in Hormozgan province on the country’s southern coast facing Oman across the Strait of Hormuz.
The Sefid gas field holds around 70 billion cubic metres of in-situ gas, of which some 72% is recoverable, the Mehr News Agency reported.
Despite ongoing economic sanctions due to its nuclear programme, Iran remains the world’s fifth largest oil exporter.
The country also has the second largest natural gas reserves after Russia which Mirkazemi increased to 33.1 trillion cubic metres, from a previous estimate of 28 trillion cubic metres.
