Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec 12 / Trend D.Khatinoglu/
Discovering a new gas field by Iran in the Caspian Sea will change the energy and political balance around the Caspian Sea, IRNA reported quoting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying.
The Iranian president said during his visit to Mazandaran Province that drilling work on this field will be carried out by domestic technologies and Iranian experts.
"The reserves of new gas field discovered in the Caspian Sea are about 50 trillion cubic feet and can meet domestic consumption demand for 10 years," he added.
Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said on Dec. 11 that Iran has discovered a natural gas field with a reserve of about 50 trillion cubic feet in its territorial waters of the Caspian Sea.
According to Ghasemi, natural gas, which will be extracted from this field by some of the properties will exceed the gas from the field of South Pars. The Minister noted that the gas produced here will not only be used in the domestic market but also exported.
With around 900 billion cubic meters increase in the past two years, Iran in-situ natural gas reserves has surged to 34 trillion cubic meters, an official with Iran's Oil Ministry said in November.
Mohsen Khojaste-Mehr told the Mehr news agency that extensive operations are underway to explore new gas deposits across the country which will probably increase the country's proven gas reserves.
Iran produced about 138.5 billion cubic meters of gas last year.
Iran sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia.