Iran announces massive oil find

TEHRAN, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Though declining to specify exactly where, the outgoing Iranian oil minister announced the discovery of a giant oil field as a new government takes shape.

Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari announced the discovery of the field, which the semiofficial Fars news agency reports has in-place reserves of more than 20 billion barrels.

"The relevant information on the exact location and volume of reserves of this oil field will be declared in coming days," Nozari added.

It is the 17th oil find for Iran in the past four years.

When it was appraised in the 1970s, the Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia, considered the world's largest by far, held 170 billion barrels of original in-place oil.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expects the approval of Massoud Mir Kazemi, a former deputy commerce minister, as his next oil minister.

Mohammad Ali Khatibi, the Iranian governor for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said national energy officials supported the nomination.

The nomination is part of a sweeping Cabinet shake-up as the second Ahmadinejad administration takes shape in the wake of the contested June presidential election.