Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.17 /Trend, A.Yusifzade /
Outdated oil wells and lack of a sufficient influx of investments are the main factors of reducing the oil production in Iran, Seyyed Hamid Hosseini, head of the Iranian Oil Products Exporters Union, was quoted by Moj, as saying.
The investments in the gas sector are the main priorities of the Iranian government. Proper attention is not paid to the investments in the oil sector.
Seyyed Hamid Hosseini said that Iran's oil production declined from 4.2 million to 3.6 million barrels per day.
Earlier, Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi said that a new oil field had been discovered in southern Iran, increasing the country's proven oil reserves up to 150.31 billion barrels.
He also announced about discovering a new gas field called Sefid (white) in Iran's southern province of Hormozgan, saying that the field contains 70 billion cubic meters of gas, 72 percent of which can be exploited.
"The country's oil and gas reserves have been reassessed for the last six months. According to the latest studies, the country's oil reserves have reached 150.31 billion barrels; natural gas reserves 33.1 trillion cubic meters, Mirkazemi was quoted by SHANA news agency, as saying.
He said that exploration efforts would be continued to discover new fields, adding that the volume of the country's reserves would definitely increase by the end of the Iranian calendar year in March 2011.
Iran is the world's third-largest oil producer. In 2009, Iran's crude production was fixed at 3.8 million bpd.
The Persian Gulf country also sits on the world's second-largest gas deposits.
The oil ministry plans to annually add 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 630 billion cubic meters of gas to Iran's hydrocarbon resources within the country's Fifth Development Plan (2010-2015).
By taking these measures Iran will remain the holder of the biggest joint oil and gas resources in the world, and the second largest oil producer among OPEC countries.