Iran has a reason to smile after the country discovered yet another oil field estimated to contain 53 billion barrels of crude oil.
Announcing on Sunday (10/112019), Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, said the newly discovered oil field is located in the Khuzestan, a province in the southwest of Iran and it covers 2400 square kilometers of land and is about 80 meters in depth.
“We have discovered a new big oil field with 53 billion barrels of reserves,” Iran President Rouhani announced.
“This is a small gift by the government to the people of Iran,” the Iran president added.
The newly discovered oil field in Iran will be the second-largest proven oil reserve in the country after Ahvaz which is said to contain an estimated number of 65 billion barrels.
As the founding member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Iran now boasts to be having about 158.4 billion barrels in its proven oil reserves.
As of January 2019, Iran was ranked fourth as the country with the largest oil reserves behind Venezuela – 300,878 million barrels, Saudi Arabia – 266,455 million barrels, Canada – 169,709 million barrels.
“I am telling the White House that in the days when you sanctioned the sale of Iranian oil, the country’s workers and engineers were able to discover 53 billion barrels of oil,” Iran president boasted.
Though some experts in Iran have disputed the figures saying they have been made by politicians, they agreed that the discovery is indeed a big step.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Manouchehr Takinan an international oil consultant said the announcements did not give any technical details and it is still not clear how much oil could be extracted from the newly discovered reserve.
“Whether it is 53 billion barrels is oil in place or whether it is recoverable. Even if it is oil in place, I would say about 20 or 30 percent can be recovered, it is a huge quantity.
Mr. Takinan argued that making a discovery is different from producing and it will take time depending on the particular characteristics of the new reservoir that has been discovered. “I would say at least 2 or 3 years minimum,” Takinan opined.