Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 23/ Trend G.Mehdi/
The existing crude oil and natural gas reserves in Iran are worth around $37 trillion, IRNA quoted deputy oil minister Mohammad-Reza Moqaddam as saying.
The reserves include 100 billion barrels of crude oil, 94 billion barrels of condensates, and 207 billion barrels equivalent of natural gas, he said.
In September, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said that Iran's crude oil production will remain steady this year compared to last year.
Iran produced about 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in 2011, according to OPEC figures.
He added that the country's oil output is projected to increase by 1.5 million bpd by 2016.
Iran is the only country in the world which has the potential to supply crude oil to international markets for as much as 150 years, the former oil minister Masoud Mirkazemi said in October.
On December 18, the Fars News Agency reported that Iran has discovered huge reserves of gas hydrate in the Gulf of Oman.
The found reserves equal the total existing oil and gas reserves in the country.
Qasemi has recently announced that 775 million cubic meters of gas per day could be recovered from the South Pars gas field after underway projects come on stream.
Iran, which sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, has been trying to enhance its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in its South Pars gas field.
The South Pars gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, i.e. the North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.
The Iranian gas field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, about eight percent of the world's reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of LNG resources.
