Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 1 / Trend F.Milad/
Iranian oil minister Rostam Qasemi has announced the country's recoverable oil reserves stand at 154.8 billion barrels.
The Shana news agency quoted Qasemi as saying that the new explorations have increased the amount from the previous figure of 151 billion barrels.
Iran's oil reserves stand at 158 billion barrels, the ISNA news agency reported on Sunday, signaling a slight rise in the Islamic Republic's estimate.
Last October Iran upped its reserves figure to 150.31 billion barrels from a previous estimate of 138 billion barrels in response to neighbor Iraq increasing its estimate.
The ISNA report did not say how the further increase had been calculated but quoted Qasemi as saying his plan to concentrate on extracting crude from fields shared with other countries would boost production.
"By the end of the Fifth Development Plan (2010-2015), the country's oil production must increase to 5.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and this should happen from the country's joint fields," it quoted Qasemi as saying.
Officials have put Iran's current output at between 3.6 million and 4 million bpd, with the latest estimate, given by Hormoz Qalavand, head of the state-run National Iranian Southern Oil Company to the semi-official Fars news agency on Wednesday, of 3.92 million bpd.