Iran’s oil minister has announced the discovery of about 280 billion cubic meters of new natural gas reserves in the Pazan field, located in the southern part of Fars Province.

This field, with reserves amounting to 10 trillion cubic feet—equivalent to about 283 billion cubic meters—of natural gas, could help offset the country’s future energy imbalance, Mohsen Paknejad said, reports Shana information network.

“To put this in perspective,” he said, “the Pazan field’s new 10 trillion cubic feet of gas—assuming a 70 percent recovery factor—could yield about 7 trillion cubic feet, equivalent to 7,000 days of production from one phase of the South Pars gas field. That’s roughly 17 to 18 years of output from a single South Pars phase—an impressive figure.”

Paknejad added that production from the field is projected to start within 40 months.