A gasfield with an estimated 11 trillion cubic feet in reserves has been discovered in the Gulf off the coast of Iran, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said.

'A gasfield with an estimated reserve of  311 billion cubic metres was found by an Indian company in the Gulf,' a report in Gulf Daily News quoted Nozari as saying.

Nozari declined to reveal the name of the company but said 'there will be talks with the discovering company for (the field's) development if they are interested.'

Iran has the world's second-largest proven gas reserves after Russia and has ambitions to export gas to a host of countries including Armenia, Pakistan and Syria.

Despite vast gas reserves, the country has not grown to be a major international exporter due to slow progress in exploiting its fields combined with a lack of foreign investment.

Despite its export plans, Iran has recently been forced to import gas from neighbouring Turkmenistan to cover high domestic consumption.

The imports were stopped at the end of December due to what Turkmenistan called technical hitches.

Iran normally imports 20 to 23 million cubic metres of gas daily from Turkmenistan - amounting to around five per cent of its total consumption.

Iran's only gas exports are to Turkey which usually receives around 20 million cubic metres per day.

Iran had to cut the exports to Turkey for three weeks earlier this year due to the lack of Turkmenistan gas and severe cold weather.-TradeArabia News Service