DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai's government, under pressure to repay billions of dollars in debt, said yesterday it has discovered a new offshore oil field — the first such find by the city-state in decades.

The media office of the sheikdom's ruler did not provide details such as the size of the field or preliminary estimates of its production capacity, making it impossible to gauge the effect on Dubai's strained budget. An e-mailed statement from the media office announcing the find said the new deposit is located east of the existing Rashid oil field.

Dubai's ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum "brought the good news of a new oil discovery in Dubai to the people of United Arab Emirates, stressing that the new field will boost the economic capabilities of the state," the statement said.

Dubai is one of seven small sheikdoms that comprise the United Arab Emirates federation. It is struggling to get out from under more than $80 billion of debt racked up during a multiyear building boom. The development push was aimed at diversifying the economy away from the oil sector and into finance, trade and tourism.

The UAE as a whole is the world's third-largest oil exporter, although the vast majority of the nation's reserves are held by the federal capital Abu Dhabi. Dubai's own reserves have been shrinking for years.

Samuel Ciszuk, Middle East energy analyst at IHS Global Insight in London, said the waters off Dubai's coast have been extensively explored, making major discoveries unlikely unless a particularly deep pocket of oil was found.

"Nobody has really high hopes for that area. It's been in terminal decline for quite some time," he said. "Likely it is not going to be a very substantial find in the grand scheme of things."

Ciszuk estimated it could take up to two to two-and-a-half years for commercial production from the field to come online.

Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, an uncle and top deputy of Dubai's ruler who heads the emirate's oil affairs department, has been ordered to start exploring the field to determine its reserves and potential, according to the media office statement.

The announcement said the new field will increase the emirate's total output.

But it did not say where production stands now or how much potential the new field offers. Dubai does not disclose production levels.