Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi announced the find Sunday. He said that up until now, the Iranian section of the Caspian was rated as holding about 0.3 trillion cubic meters of gas. He said the new find would raise that “several times.” But he did not give a new estimate.
According to the standard Statistical Review published by BP, Iran has the world’s second largest gas reserves at 29.6 trillion cubic meters.
Qasemi said the new field lies entirely within Iranian waters. But he failed to say if it was within waters claimed by Iran but disputed by the other Caspian coastal states or if it lay within the area of the Caspian that all the other states concede to Iran.
Qasemi also said Iran may now have the largest gas reserves in the world. Russia is credited with 47.6 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves. So the Caspian find would have to exceed 18 trillion cubic meters to beat out Russia.