Iran reveals details of newly-found oil field in Caspian Sea

The details of a newly-discovered big oil field in the Caspian Sea have been announced, Trend cites the Mehr news agency as saying.

The announcement was made by Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi as he visited the Amir Kabir semi-submersible drilling platform.

Iran first discovered the new oil field on May 10. The exploration was carried out from the Iran Alborz drilling platform, 250 kilometers offshore, in eastern Mazandaran Province.

The reserves have been found at a depth of 2,460 meters. Early reports indicated that the newly-discovered oil field contains from 8 to 10 billion barrels of oil.

Rostam Qasemi said earlier that the first "oil torch" will be sparked on the "Amir Kabir" platform (Alborz).

Qasemi said that a field with gas reserves amounting to 50 trillion cubic feet (more than 1.4 trillion cubic meters) and oil amounting to 10 billion barrels was discovered in the Iranian sector of the Caspian Sea in December 2011.

The deposit, called "Sardar Milli", is located 188 kilometers to the north of the coast of Gilan province and 250 kilometers north-west of the port of Neka.

According to the received data, the new field is ten times larger than the "Shah Deniz" field in Azerbaijan (reserves amounting to 1.2 trillion cubic meters), Qasemi said.

Iran has previously carried out unsuccessful exploration operations in various sectors of the Caspian Sea through the "Amir Kabir" platform seven times, but this time they were successful.