Iran has discovered two new oil and gas fields, the country’s oil minister said on 7 February.

The announcement of the two discoveries came at the signing ceremony of the Kish gas field development project, according to state-run energy news agency, Shana.

Gas was discovered at Halegan, in the southern Fars province, said the Islamic Republic’s oil minister, Masoud Mirkazemi. The field has the capacity to yield 50 million cubic metres of gas per day for 20 years.

Including condensate sales, the oil minister added that the Halegan field is capable of bringing more than $80bn in new revenue to the country.

Meanwhile, the Somar oil field, in the western Kermanshah province is estimated to hold some 475 million barrels of crude oil, although only 70 million barrels of this is recoverable, according to Mirkazemi.

Assuming a crude oil price of $70 a barrel, the field could yield as much as $5bn.  

The Central Bank of Iran reported on 6 February, that the country’s oil and gas revenues reached $31.3bn in the first half of the Iranian year which began on March 21 2009.

The world’s fifth-largest crude exporter saw its revenues decline by 45.5 per cent on the same period in the previous year, due to the drops in the crude oil price.