May 2, 2007        

Explorations and surveys done in the past four years show that Iraqi oil reserves may exceed those of Saudi Arabi, said Oil Minister Husain al-Shahristani.

Speaking at Babylon University in the southern city of Hilla, the minister said Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proven reserves already explored and perhaps more than that number of reserves yet to be explored.

Saudi Arabia possesses 25 percent of the world’s proven petroleum reserves and its proven reserves are estimated at 262 billion.

Shahristani did not say whether the surveys conducted so far have substantially increased the country’s current proven reserves which still fall below those of Iran which has emerged as the world’s second largest after Saudi Arabia.

But he said 78 oil fields were discovered most of them of the “gigantic or large” size.

He said the National Oil Company has already reserved 25 massive fields for development.

He said the European Union was interested in Iraqi gas reserves believed to be the world’s tenth largest.

The EU was even keen to construct a gas pipeline network through Syria, Jordan and even Egypt to the terminals on the Mediterranean, he added.