The managing director of Iran's Pars Oil and Gas Company said Iran has discovered the world's biggest helium reserve in its South Pars gas field in southern Iran, the English language satellite Press TV reported on Friday.

Mousa Souri said Iran has signed an agreement with a Russian company to complete the feasibility studies for the gas reserve, said the report.

The volume of the world's helium reserves is 40 billion cubic meters and the South Pars gas field holds 10 billion cubic meters of the total amount, Souri was quoted as saying.

In August, the managing director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Ahmad Qalehbani, said that a new gas field containing around 495 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 658 million barrels of gas condensates, roughly valued 133 billion U.S. dollars was discovered at Assalouyeh region in south Iran.

The field had the capacity to produce up to 2 billion cubic feet (60 million cubic meters) of gas and 88,000 barrels of condensates per day, Qalehbani was quoted as saying by semi- official Mehr news agency.

The South Pars / North Dome field is a natural gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar. According to the International Energy Agency, the field holds an estimated 50.97 trillion cubic meters (1,800 trillion cubic feet) of in-situ gas and some 50 billion barrels of condensates.

This gas field covers an area of 9,700 square km, of which 3, 700 square km (South Pars) is in Iranian territorial waters and 6, 000 square km (North Dome) is in Qatari territorial waters.