Iran oil reserves hit over 160bn barrels in 40 yrs.

TEHRAN. KAZINFORM Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said the country's oil reserves have reached from 88 billion barrels during the Islamic Revolution in 1979 to 160 billion barrels, showing a considerable hike.

Iran's gas industry was also revived after the Islamic Revolution, Zanganeh added, according to Mehr News Agency.

Speaking in a TV program late on Wed., he pointed to Iran's achievements in oil, gas and petrochemical industry and said, "when oil was discovered in Iran for the first time, the country became a determining and decisive oil player in the world."

Iran's oil reserves stood at about 88 billion barrels during the Islamic Revolution in 1979, he said, adding, "but presently, the country's oil reserves stand at more than 160 billion barrels given the extraction of 50 billion barrels of oil."

Elsewhere in his remarks, Zanganeh pointed to the country's rich gas reserves and said, "Iran's gas reserves during the Islamic Revolution reached from 9,000 billion cubic meters to more than 33 trillion cubic meters, showing a dramatic increase."

He drew a comparison between production of gas condensates before and after the Islamic Revolution and said, "production of gas condensates during the Islamic Revolution reached from 30,000 barrels to more than 800,000 barrels/day after the Islamic Revolution."

Turning to the country's progress in development projects in South Pars Gas Field, he said, "the current gas production in South Pars has hit more than 610 million cubic meters/day."

The oil minister then described South Pars Gas Field as the most important achievement of the Islamic Revolution and said, "the country's daily production of gas has overtaken neighboring Qatar in a way that four conventional phases would be inaugurated in coming days."