Tehran, Aug 9 (IANS): Iran has discovered a new gas field containing about 495 billion cubic meters of natural gas worth $133 billion in the southern part of the country.

The reserve in Iran's Assalouyeh region also holds 658 million barrels of gas condensates, said Ahmad Qalehbani, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company.

The field has the capacity to produce up to two billion cubic feet of gas and 88,000 barrels of condensates daily, the Mehr news agency quoted Qalehbani as saying Monday.

Qalehbani said Iran discovered four gas fields in the last calendar year having a volume of 336 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 213 million barrels of condensates.

Deputy Oil Minister Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr said in July that the value of Iran's annual oil and gas production reached $217 billion, which will increase in the coming years due to the vast new investments in the sector.

"By 2010, Iran produced on average 4.2 million barrels of oil, 600 million cubic meters of gas and 400,000 barrels of gas condensates per day," Khojasteh-Mehr said.

Iran plans to invest $15.8 billion for the development of the South Pars gas field.

The South Pars/North Dome field is a natural gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is the world's largest gas field shared between Iran and Qatar.

According to the International Energy Agency, the field holds an estimated 50.97 trillion cubic meters of in-situ gas and some 50 billion barrels of condensates.

This gas field covers an area of 9,700 sq km, of which 3, 700 sq km is in Iranian territorial waters and 6,000 sq km (North Dome) is in Qatari territorial waters.