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TEHRAN, May 23 (UPI) -- Iranian officials announced the discovery of a field near the Persian Gulf that could yield as much as 170 million barrels of oil.

The director of the country's national oil company announced the discovery of an oil layer near the Khayyam gas field close to the Persian Gulf that has an estimated 758 million barrels of oil.

The director, Ahmad Ghalehbani, said 22 percent, or about 170 million barrels, is recoverable. The field has a production capacity of about 35,000 barrels of oil per day, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reports.

The field is about 18 miles from the Persian Gulf and measures about 37 square miles.

Iran has some of the largest oil deposits in the world. Ghalehbani said that even if oil were priced at around $80 per barrel, the new field would have a value of about $13.6 billion.