Amid new sanctions threats from US President Donald Trump, Iran on Sunday announced a major gas discovery in the country’s Southern Fars province. Tehran said that they have discovered a major gas reserve – more than 7.5 trillion cubic feet (212 billion cubic metres) worth “tens of billions of dollars”, Fars news agency reported.

Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said around 5.7 trillion cubic feet (161 billion cubic metres) of the reserves in southern Iran’s Fars province are estimated to be recoverable, an amount equivalent to roughly 15 years of production from one phase of the South Pars gas field.

Al Jazeera reported that the field also contains significant volumes of gas condensate and the combined resources would create “a new source of wealth for the country”.

According to Reuters, given an estimated recovery ratio, Paknejad said it was possible to ⁠extract about 5,700 billion cubic feet of gas from that field.

Iran has estimated its pre-war production at around 650 million cubic metres (mcm) per day, which translates into around 8.4 trillion cubic feet per year.

Last month, a senior government official said Iran expected to ⁠restore about 100 mcm per day of natural gas production capacity “within the coming months”, after strikes cut output ⁠by about 230 mcm per day since the war started in late February.

Paknejad said ⁠the discovered gas was “sweet”, which meant it would reduce both development and operating costs.

Meanwhile, Tehran, which has been carrying out repairs to its energy infrastructure damaged during the ‌war ⁠with Israel and the United States, now faces planned US sanctions that could put further strain on its economy. The new “crushing” sanctions by United States may come as early as on Monday as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to hold a press conference at 2 pm EDT on August 24.

With inputs from Reuters