According to him, the Yuzhno-Shatilovskoye field, which has "significant" oil reserves, is located in the Gomelsk region in south-eastern Belarus.
"The deposit will be promptly transferred to the mining company, and this will be an additional reserve for them," Kovkhuto was quoted by the Belarusian news website tut.by as saying.
He added that Belarus currently produces about 1.6 million metric tons of oil per year, and that the discovery of the new field is fully in line with a recent demand issued by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
He said that he "just did not believe that we do not have large amounts of oil and that we lack natural gas in the bowels of the earth."
Kovhuto, for his part, assured that Belarus possesses significant mineral resources and that it fully provides itself with reserves of potash and rock salt, dolomite and lime raw materials, clay, construction and foundry sand, as well as building stone and peat.
