TEHRAN – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Tehran University is committed to increase Azadegan oil field’s recovery factor up to 10 percent from its current six percent, which means an increase of up to 3.5 billion barrels of the field’s recoverable reserves.

Speaking to the press after a meeting with the heads of the country’s major universities on Saturday, Zanganeh mentioned some of research projects which his ministry has entrusted to the country’s universities, saying: “The meeting was set up to address the problems and challenges facing these projects, so university heads were asked to underline their concerns in order to be resolved.”

According to Zanganeh, increasing the recovery factor of the country’s oil fields is the most important subject for research projects, since most of the fields which the ministry has awarded their study projects to universities are large fields with significant oil reserves, and therefore even a small increase in their recovery factor is significant.

Iranian Oil Ministry is following a program which it calls “technological development” of Iran's oil fields, under which the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed nine deals with the country's top universities and research centers to study major oil fields.

Under the mentioned contracts Petroleum Engineering Faculty of Tehran University is studying Azadegan field, Darkhovin oil field has been awarded to Amir Kabir University, Soroush oil field to Sahand University in Tabriz, while Ahvaz field has been assigned to the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, Karanj field is handed to Islamic Azad University, Koupal field to Sharif University of Technology, Mansouri field to Shiraz University, Gachsaran field to Oil Technology University and finally Bibi-Hakime field’s research project is handed to the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry.

In late December 2019, deputy oil minister for engineering, research and technology affairs said Oil Ministry is utilizing the high scientific capacities of the country for implementation of its projects.

“Oil Ministry is conducting 26 research projects through cooperation with 16 top universities and research institutes of the country, and given that these major universities benefit from the contribution of a network of universities, so research measures of Oil Ministry are in fact applying a vast scientific potential in the country”, Saeed Mohammadzadeh said.

Azadegan is one of the major oilfields Iran shares with Iraq at the western part of Iran’s southwestern region of Karoun, known as West Karoun fields.

West Karoun holds great importance for the country’s oil industry since according to the latest studies, its in-situ deposit is estimated to be 67 billion barrels containing both light and heavy crude oils, and therefore it could have a big impact on Iran’s oil output increases in the future.

With the fields fully operational, their output could add 1.2 million bpd to the country’s oil production capacity.

Having an estimated 67 billion barrels of in-situ oil, West Karoun fields definitely deserve the spotlight which has been put on them recently.

EF/MA