TEHRAN - Iran’s Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) is due to carry out four major research projects aimed at increasing the recovery factor of the country’s oil fields by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2021), Shana reported quoting the head of RIPI’s upstream faculty.

According to Ezatollah Kazemzadeh, the mentioned projects include comprehensive studies and laboratory research on water- and gas-based methods in Asmari and Bangestan reservoirs in Dana field, as well as two projects in Bibi Hakimeh and Ahvaz fields.

Mentioning the RIPI’s achievements in the previous calendar year, Kazemzadeh noted that the institute signed 12 research agreements with private companies and government-owned firms for conducting a wide range of research activities in various fields of exploration, drilling, production, harvesting and laboratory technology services in the previous year.

On average, RIPI was able to sign a contract every month, and in the mentioned agreements 18 of the current issues and problems in the oil industry have been addressed in order to provide research and technology solutions, he explained.

Emphasizing that all projects of the institute have been defined with the aim of solving the oil industry’s problems, and to provide research and technological solutions for them, the official said: "In addition to the above [mentioned projects], 24 research titles and proposals have been sent to the Oil Ministry to be pursued in the current year.”

Back in April, RIPI Head Jafar Tofiqi said the institute has it on the agenda to diversify the basket of technological products in the oil industry in the current year.

“The research institute is not just a research contractor, it plays a strategic role in addressing the needs of the oil industry,” Tofiqi said.

“We will be facing more demand from the oil industry in the current [Iranian calendar] year (began on March 20), so we need to expand the basket of our technological products in order to meet those requirements; this requires more capacity building and empowerment within the Petroleum Industry Research Institute,” the official stressed.

RIPI was initially established under the title of the “Iran Petroleum Industry Research Development Office” in 1959. Its primary aim was carrying out research on the application of petroleum materials.

The main strategy of PIRI is creating value-added via development and indigenization of new technologies used in the oil industry.

EF/MA