TEHRAN – Iranian Oil Minister Javad Oji said seven deals worth $500 million are going to be signed with 54 domestic knowledge-based companies to enhance the recovery factor of the country’s oil fields, Shana reported.

“We have identified 700 oil wells that are operating with low efficiency, so contracts worth 500 million dollars will be signed in order for 54 knowledge-based companies to use technological methods for increasing the production of these wells,” Oji stated.

“The Oil Ministry has also reviewed all its needs in various fields including materials and equipment, refineries and petrochemicals and has called for the participation of capable knowledge-based companies for meeting these needs,” the minister added.

According to the official, the number of knowledge-based companies active in the oil industry has been increasing significantly in the present year so that the figure which was 150 at the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21) has currently reached 450.

Over the past two decades, Iranian Oil Ministry and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) have become more and more determined to collaborate with knowledge-based and research-based companies, universities, and research institutes to advance their development goals.

To pursue its new goals, the ministry has signed numerous memorandums and agreements with domestic knowledge-based firms and research institutions in recent years and such entities now play a significant role in making the country’s oil and gas industry more and more self-reliant.

Meanwhile, as the current Iranian calendar year 1401 (began on March 21) is named “Knowledge-Based Production and Job-Creation” by Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, in line with materializing the motto of the year, Oil Ministry and all of its subsidiaries have announced strong determination and prepared plans to this end.

Oil Minister Javad Oji has said, “We will increase oil production and reduce the import needs of the oil industry by relying on the power of knowledge-based production”.

“At the Ministry of Oil, we called in five areas so that we could use the potential of knowledge-based companies to increase production. Low-efficiency wells and optimization of fuel consumption in collecting gases, import needs of the ministry, and the chain of petrochemical complementary industries are among these areas”, the minister said at the beginning of the present year.

“During the short time that this government has been established various exhibitions of knowledge-based companies have been held, which I believe that they have a very good potential in both the upstream and downstream sectors”, Oji further reiterated.

“According to the order of the Leader, the industry should become knowledge-based; it is possible, and we have started the work in this due”, the oil minister noted.

“Also, with our call, very good and capable companies came forward, and the new formats of contracts we have designed will motivate these companies for cooperation”, he added.

EF/MA