Speaking at a news conference in Tehran, Nozari said an Indian company found a gas field with about11 trillion cubic feet in reserves off the coast of Iran, the Alalam news service reported.

Iran is second only to Russia in the amount of available proven gas reserves and has plans to export its valuable goods to countries such as Pakistan and Syria.

Iran already exports nearly 700 million cubic feet daily to Turkey and imports vast amounts of gas from Turkmenistan.

Nozari also said his country wants the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, to which Iran belongs, to cut its crude oil output in the near future.

"Our proposal ... for the upcoming meeting is that OPEC ... cuts its output capacity," Nozari said of OPEC's schedule meeting in March. "Iran and Venezuela brought up this issue so that it would be discussed at OPEC's next meeting."