Iranian President Rouhani announced that he had discovered a new oil field containing 53 billion barrels of crude oil in a southwestern province.

The new oil field, 2,400 square kilometers in width, is 80 meters deep, located in Khuzestan province, southwestern Iran, President Hassan Rouhani said in a speech on state television today.

"This is a small government gift to the people of Iran," Rouhani said, adding that the oil field stretches nearly 200 km from the Iraqi border area of Khuzestan province to Omidiyeh city.

The new discovery will add about 34% of Iran's existing crude oil reserves, the founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). It is also the fourth largest oil reserves and the second largest gas reserves in the world. Multinational oil company BP estimates that Iran's current reserves are 155.6 billion barrels of crude oil.

However, Tehran has struggled with oil exports since US President Donald Trump last year announced its withdrawal from the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement (JCOPA) and imposed sanctions on the Islamic nation. spear. The US wants to tighten Iran's oil exports to pressure it to negotiate a new deal. The rest of the agreement, including Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, tried to save JCOPA, but to no avail.