NISOC Targeting 20% Rise in Recovery Rate

EghtesadOnline: National Iranian South Oil Company aims to increase the recovery rate of its oilfields by as much as 20%, the company's chief executive officer says.

News ID: ۷۷۸۶۳۰

20 August 2017

Bijan Alipour also said on Tuesday that the state-owned company operates 66 oil reservoirs, with 230 billion barrels of in-place crude. He added that gas injection to boost recovery is being carried out on almost 50% of the fields operated by NISOC, the official news portal of the National Iranian Oil Company reported.

Alipour added that out of the 66 reservoirs, which account for two-thirds of Iran’s in-place oil reserves, 18 are in the second half of their life cycle.

"Injecting gas into underground reservoirs has been exercised for over four decades in Iran," the official said, underlining the method as one of the most efficient oil recovery techniques in Iranian oilfields that has resulted into an overall 8% increase in recovery factor, Financial Tribune reported.

“We can increase the rate of recovery by 15% and 20% if gas injection is implemented across all NISOC reservoirs," he added.

Earlier this month, Alipour told ISNA that studies conducted by NISOC over the last four years show Iran’s recoverable crude oil reserves have increased by 4.4 billion barrels.

The latest government data indicate total proven crude oil reserves are close to 160 billion barrels, of which 16 billion barrels are in the Persian Gulf.

“Iran so far has drawn close to 7.8 billion barrels of oil from its Persian Gulf reservoirs,” he said without specifying a timeframe. “Around 8.2 billion more barrels are extractable.”