Declared oil reserves in Iran suggest that the country holds the second-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia, a leading energy official said in Tehran.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, in its 2009 annual statistical bulletin, said Saudi Arabia had 264 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, Venezuela had 211 billion barrel of proven oil reserves and Iran had 137 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.
Mohammad Ali Khatibi, the Iranian envoy to OPEC, told the Iranian Oil Ministry's Petroenergy Information Network that whenever a country updates
its declared oil reserves, OPEC publishes the updates in the annual bulletin.
The U.S. Energy Information Agency reports similar results in terms of rankings of world oil producers.
Khatibi said, however, that there was no official confirmation on Venezuelan claims, meaning, "Iran is the holder of the second biggest oil reserves at
OPEC."