

Iran is reporting huge new discoveries of oil that contain "billions" of barrels of reserves, state radio quoted the managing director of the country's National Oil Co. as saying today.

Seyfollah Jashnsaz said Iran has discovered seven new oil fields in unspecified locations around the country.



"Billions of barrels of oil will be added to the country's existing oil reserves," he said in comments broadcast on state radio.

According to Jashnsaz, just one of these oil fields has 9 billion barrels of oil.

"Even if we make calculations based on the minimum 12% recovery rate," he said, "it means that 1 billion barrels of oil can be recovered from this field alone."

He added that further details of the find will be announced by the country's minister of oil in coming days.