Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 18 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /
Iran's crude oil reserves have increased to 150 billion barrels of oil, Shana reported quoting Iran's governor for OPEC, Mohammad Ali Khatibi as saying.
Khatibi said that at the end of each year, OPEC Secretariat sends forms to the member countries to fill in their hydrocarbon reserves data adding the documents usually are sent back to the secretariat during the second or third quarter of each year.
He further noted that this forms had been delivered to the related departments and data gathering would be completed soon.
'Examining new oil and gas discoveries and studying procedures concerning secondary reserves show that Iran's crude oil reserves have risen to 150 billion barrels of oil,' Khatibi said.
In November 2010, Iranian minister of petroleum Seed Masoud Mirkazemi has said that Iran's crude oil reserves have increased from 137 billion barrels of oil to 150.13 billion barrels of oil due to new discoveries.
According to Khatibi the new figure announced by the minister of petroleum is official and would be sent to the OPEC's Secretariat.
Assuming current daily production of 4.2 million barrels, Iran's oil production lifespan will rise from 84 years to 98 years.
OPEC daily basket price stood at $93.72 a barrel Monday, 17 January 2011.
The new OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Oriente (Ecuador), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).
OPEC is a permanent intergovernmental organization of 12 oil-exporting developing nations that coordinates and unifies the petroleum policies of its Member Countries.