TEHRAN, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari said on Tuesday that Iran has found a new oil field with in-place reserves of about 500 million barrels in southwestern Iran, said a statement posted on a website affiliated with the Oil Ministry.

    When attending the inauguration ceremony of the First Iran Petrochemical Symposium, Nozari announced the new discovery called Arvand, which is located near the city of Abadan in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, the statement said.

    He stressed that at present there are two main strategic oil and gas producing points in the west region of Karoun, including Azadegan, Yadavaran and Darkhowein oil fields and South Pars gas field.

    Iran has announced this month the discovery of two new oil fields with in-place reserves of more than 1.6 billion barrels.

    Nozari said Sunday that a new oil field with in-place reserves of about 525 million barrels has been found near the southern port city of Assaluyeh in Bushehr province.

    He also disclosed last week that Iran has discovered a new oil field near Andimeshk in Khuzestan with in-place reserves of 1.1 billion barrels.

    Iran is the fourth-largest oil producer in the world and ranks second in output among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members.

    Iranian officials have said that the country's oil reserves were estimated at more than 130 billion barrels, about 12 percent of the global reserves.