An oil field discovered in Iran is the second largest found in the country's history with an estimated 53 billion barrels, adding to previous proven reserves of 160 billion barrels, media reported on Monday, citing Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh
TEHRAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th November, 2019) An oil field discovered in Iran is the second largest found in the country's history with an estimated 53 billion barrels, adding to previous proven reserves of 160 billion barrels, media reported on Monday, citing Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh.Given the name Namavaran, the oil field was estimated to hold 31 billion barrels of oil when first discovered in 2016, but further exploration added a further 22 billion barrels to estimates, Iranian oil news site SHANA said. This increases Iran's proven oil reserves by a full third.
Zanganeh's news conference was meant to explain in detail the announcement made a day earlier by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Yazd, the country's oil-producing capital, hailing the discovery of the largest oil field as defiance to US pressure.
Iran is the fifth-largest oil-producing nation but has been finding more difficulty with exporting oil at full capacity amid increasing isolation from Western countries following the US pullout from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposition of the toughest-ever sanctions.
Namavaran puts Iran in the running to surpass Canada and join Saudi Arabia and Venezuela as the top three countries by amount of oil reserves.
