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Iran climbs the greasy pole
IRANIAN Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh claimed yesterday that new oil discoveries in the southwest of the country meant the Islamic republic held the No2 position in world crude reserves. "We now have the second largest oil reserves in the world, after Saudi Arabia," he said. He said the oil ministryâs new figure of 132 billion barrels of proven reserves, a jump of 17 billion barrels, came from discoveries in the Kushk and Hosseinieh oil fields - now classed as a single field and renamed Yadavaran - in the southwestern province of Khuzestan. The minister said exploitable oil at Yadavaran stood at more than 3 billion barrels, with a potential daily output of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countriesâ website puts Iranâs proven crude reserves at 99.08 billion barrels for 2002, the latest year for which figures are given. That is below even the previous figures given by the Iranian oil ministry. According to the website, Saudi reserves are estimated at 262.79 billion barrels, with second place going to Iraq with 115 billion barrels. Iran ranks third, according to those figures, with fourth place held by the United Arab Emirates (97.8 billion barrels) and Kuwait in fifth (96.5 billion). However, Mr Zanganeh pointed to other figures, notably those given in June by BP, which put Iran in second place with 130.7 billion barrels. Mr Zanganeh was asked if Iran would now ask OPEC for an increase in its daily production quota. "No, we have not made such a request," he said. "But there is general discussion going on in OPEC to work out a new quota system. These discussions will take a long time. It needs a consensus among all members." Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-07-05 |
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