Economy
Iran’s New Oil Field
- 11 Nov 2019
- 2 min read
Why in News
Iran has discovered a new oil field in its southwestern province of Khuzestan. The field covers 2,400 square kilometres and contains over 50 billion barrels of crude.
- The new oil field could become Iran’s second-largest field after one containing 65 billion barrels in Ahvaz (capital of Khuzestan Province).
- The discovery has come at a time when Iran is facing American sanctions against it after the US pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal.
- The other countries involved in the deal - Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China - are struggling to save the deal. However, they have offered no means by which Iran can sell its oil abroad.
- Iran has been seen going beyond the deal’s stockpile and enrichment limits. It has just begun injecting uranium gas into centrifuges at an underground Fordow plant located near Tehran.
Iran’s Oil Reserves
- Iran already has proven oil reserves of roughly 150 billion barrels.
- Oil reserves refer to crude that’s economically feasible to extract.
- Khuzestan is home to Iran’s crucial oil industry.
- Iran currently has the world’s fourth-largest proven deposits of crude oil after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Canada.
- It also has the world’s second-largest deposits of natural gas after Russia.
- It shares a massive offshore field in the Persian Gulf with Qatar.
- “Offshore” refers to the development of oil fields and natural gas deposits under the ocean.
