Iran discovers a new onshore natural gas field

Iran's Oil Minister Masoud Mir Kazemi has announced a new onshore natural gas discovery in the country's southern region. The newly discovered oil field is estimated to hold around 9.1 trillion cubic feet of gas and 7.7 million barrels of gas condensate.

The gas field, east of Assalouyeh, is near the South Pars gas complex, and is thought to contain 80 per cent of recoverable reserves which could equate to as much as 7.4 trillion cubic feet of gas.

"The in-situ capacity of the gas field is 260 billion cubic meters and 80 percent of its reserves can be exploited," said Mir Kazemi.

Iran has the world's second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia. Its South Pars field in the Gulf, which it shares with Qatar, holds around 14 trillion cubic metres of gas equal to eight percent of the world's reserves.

In related news, Mir Kazemi held a press conference on Friday 14th January to say that the price of $100 per oil barrel was appropriate and that OPEC did not “need to hold an emergency meeting over the price issue”.

Sources: UPI, Xinhua, AFP, Zawya, Hamsayeh

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