Iran announces discovery of gas field amid energy crisis

Iran has discovered more than 7.5 trillion cubic feet (212.4 billion cubic meters) of natural gas after a months-long war with the United States and Israel severely disrupted the country's energy sector. This was reported by the Bloomberg news agency on August 23.

"About 5.7 trillion cubic feet of reserves are recoverable," the material says.

The deposit is located in the southern province of Fars. Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said that the volume of recoverable reserves is comparable to 15 years of production at one of the phases of the world's largest South Pars gas field, which Iran is developing jointly with Qatar.

According to the minister, the discovery also includes gas condensate worth "tens of billions of dollars." Tehran intends to start developing resources "as soon as possible," but production is likely to begin only in a few years.

Even before the war, Iran's energy industry was experiencing problems due to Western sanctions, lack of investment, and power outages. After the strikes that began in late February, the country lost about a quarter of its daily gas production capacity, including due to attacks on the energy infrastructure of South Pars. Some of the capacity has already been restored, but the authorities warned of a possible shortage of gas in winter and urged citizens to limit consumption.

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In July, Iran and Russia reached the final stage of drafting a contract for the supply of Russian gas to the Islamic Republic. It was noted that the final agreement on cooperation between the countries will be adopted in the near future.