Iran says it has discovered a new gas field close to the giant South Pars natural gas field which it jointly shares with Qatar.

Local media have quoted an unnamed official at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) as saying that the field – named Sepand - holds 1.5 trillion cubic feet of sweet gas of which about 792 billion cubic feet is recoverable.

The official added that it was still not clear if Sepand was shared with Qatar but emphasized that it was independent from South Pars.

“One of the most important features of the new field is that it has a wide horizontal natural gas structure,” Iran’s Energy News website quoted the NIOC official as saying.

The official further added that the drilling of an exploration well would soon start in the field.

South Pars gas field – which is located in the Persian Gulf – hosts the bulk of Iran’s natural gas reserves. The joint field – called the North Dome field in Qatar – is the world’s biggest largest gas field with estimated reserves of 51 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and some 50 billion barrels of condensate. Experts believe that the field has more recoverable reserves than all other fields combined.

Iran has so far developed 12 phases in the field – phases 1, 2&3, 4&5, 6-8, 9&10, 15&16. The remaining phases are 11, 12, 13, 14 and 22-24.

Experts believe that additional development phases in South Pars and in other fields would give Iran more room for exports in the future.

Nevertheless, they say that the country’s motivation for producing more gas at the current juncture would be to satisfy domestic needs and also use the gas for re-injections into ageing oil fields to boost crude production.