Iran has discovered a new oilfield in the southwest of the country that has the potential to boost its reserves by about a third, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday.
"Workers and the exploration arm of the National Iranian Oil Company ...have found an oilfield with 53 billion barrels of reserves," Rouhani said in a televised speech in the central city of Yazd.
The field stretches over 2,400 sq km (927 sq miles) in the oil-rich Khuzestan province, Rouhani said.
Iran ranks as the world's fourth–largest reserve holder of oil, and the second-largest holder of gas reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Since withdrawing from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, the United States has reimposed sanctions to strangle its vital oil trade.
The find would add around 34 percent to the OPEC member's current proven reserves, estimated by energy giant BP at 155.6 billion barrels of crude oil.
Iran is a founding member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and sits on what were already the world's fourth-biggest oil reserves and second-largest gas reserves.
But it has struggled to sell its oil since US President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Iran.
The remaining parties to the accord -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- have worked to save it by avoiding US sanctions, but their efforts have so far borne little fruit.
