Iran discovers oil, gas

Iran discovers oil, gas

NICOSIA (AFP): A top Iranian oil official said in an interview published yesterday that U.S. economic sanctions caused some problems for Iran but not enough to hinder the development of its energy sector.

Seyed Mehdi Hosseini, a senior executive at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), also disclosed that explorations in the past year have yielded 204 million barrels of crude oil and 283 billion cubic meters (10 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas.

Hosseini, director of the NIOC's exploration department, spoke in an interview in Tehran with the authoritative weekly oil newsletter, Middle East Economic Survey.

He said the new oil and gas discoveries were "in line with the targets" of Iran's second, five-year economic development plan launched in 1995.

Iran, the official said, had envisaged the discovery of 1.2 billion barrels of oil and between 708 billion and 1.416 trillion cubic meters (25 trillion and 50 trillion cubic feet) of gas by the year 2000.