Iran has discovered more than 8.8 billion barrels of oil in four layers of reserves in the country's southwestern Susangerd oil field.

"These reserves were discovered after drilling through all the new layers of reserves, to a depth of 5,026 meters (16,489.5 ft), and the expected and possible amount of reserves in this field is over 8.83 billion barrels," Iran's Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari said in a statement on Monday.

The minister described the field as the most significant discovery in the past 5 years. "The development of this field can play an effective role in raising the crude oil production in the country," he said in the statement.

Nozari explained that other exploration programs were in the offing in the region, with an exploratory borehole of 5,100 meters (16,732.3 ft) planned for the full assessments of reserve layers in the fields of Ilam, Sarvak, Gadvan and Fahlian districts.

Susangerd oil field is in Iran's southwestern Khuzestan Province, 12 km (7.5 miles) southwest of the town of Susangerd. Its dimensions are 24 x 6 km (14.9 x 3.7 miles).

The discovery was planned by the Directorate of Exploration of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), which after acquisition and analysis of the data determined that the Susangerd oil field had new potentials.

ZAP/SME/MMN

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=104393&ionid=351020103