TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran, OPEC’s second largest oil exporter, has discovered a new onshore gas field with reserves valued at 50 billion dollars, Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi said on Sunday.

The Khayam field east of Assaluyeh on the Gulf has “260 billion cubic metres (9.18 trillion cubic feet) of gas, of which 210 (billion) can be exploited, which is about 24 million cubic metres per day,” the minister told reporters.

Iran has the world’s second-largest reserves of natural gas after Russia. Its South Pars field in the Gulf that it shares with Qatar holds around 14 trillion cubic metres of gas, or eight percent of world reserves.