Iran retakes No. 3 oil spot?

TEHRAN, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Crude oil reserves in the Iran are expected to rise to more than 150 billion barrels by the end of the Iranian year, the country's oil minister said Monday.

Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mir Kazemi said Iran wasn't a poor country in terms of oil and natural gas deposits.

"Based on the latest revision of oil and gas fields explorations, Iran's crude oil reserves amounts to 150.3 billion barrels and the figure will rise up to year's end (in March)," he told the Oil Ministry's Petroenergy Information Network.

He said his country aims to spend $200 billion on the oil industry under the terms of a five-year economic plan outlined by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iraq last month claimed it passed Iran in terms of oil reserves with an estimated 143.1 billion barrels of oil, making it the world's No. 3 oil state.

The U.S. Energy Information Agency said Iran in January had an estimated 137.6 billion barrel of oil reserves while Iraq had an estimated 115 billion barrels.

The minister said Iran would look to international bonds and domestic bank loans to finance oil development in the country. International commercial activity wasn't ruled out, the minister said, though the U.S. State Department recently published a long list of global energy companies that stopped doing business with Iran.