Iran will announce the details on the discovery of a new hydrocarbon field in
the near future, the official with the National Iranian Oil Company stated.
The details may be announced by the end of the current calendar year
(March 19), Mahmoud Mohaddes, the NIOC director for exploration affairs told
Shana news agency on Monday.
Currently, Iran's developed oil reserves are estimated at 560 billion
barrels, of which 140 billion barrels are recoverable, including 70 billion
barrels of heavy and extra-heavy crudes.
Iran holds the world's third largest proven oil reserves and the
second-largest natural gas reserves.
Iran maintains its crude oil production level in February despite the
European Union's sanctions against the Islamic Republic's oil and banking
sectors.
"The production for this month will be the same as the previous one,
around 3.5 (million barrels per day)," Iran's OPEC governor Mohammad Ali
Khatibi told Reuters on Thursday.
Khatibi reiterated that Iran has no problems in selling its oil to a
market other than the EU, adding, "We still have customers, everything is
normal."
Iran's Oil Ministry announced on Feb. 19 that it had cut oil sales to
British and French companies in response to an embargo by the E.U. on Iran's
oil.
E.U. foreign ministers agreed to ban oil imports from Iran on January 23
and to freeze the assets of the Iranian Central Bank across the E.U. in a bid to
pressure Iran over its nuclear program.
