10-10-06

The total amount of Iran's oil and gas reserves is expected to exceed that of Saudi Arabia in the next 20 years provided that the country manages to inject huge amounts of gas into its oil wells.
Gas injection into oil wells plays a crucial role in oil recovery projects. The report further indicated that Iran would have to invest $ 20 bn to increase its oil recovery by 45 bn barrels. Some 20 bn cf will be required for injection into oil wells per day.

It said Iran will be able to extract 45 bn barrels of extra oil from 2015, when the West's demand for energy will be higher than ever before, by injecting gas produced in South Pars, which is said to be the world's largest offshore gas field, into its oil wells.
"Iran will become the top oil exporter within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the next 20 years," the report said, adding that Iran will be able to reimburse all the investments in its energy sector in a mid-term period due to growing energy prices.

The government has reportedly planned to implement a huge oil recovery project aimed at increasing recovery rate by 30 % by the closing year of Fourth Plan (2005-2010).
However, some experts, including Farshid Simbar, a faculty member at Shahid Beheshti University, expressed doubts about achieving the target given the existing technical problems, the huge capital required for boosting recovery coefficient and boycott of Iran by companies that have the necessary technology for this.

"Increasing the recovery rate has been among the fundamental subjects heeded by giant oil companies and industrialized states in the past 40 years.”
“By increasing the recovery rate, not only new oil and gas reserves can be discovered, but also the probability of gaining access to fossil energy resources will increase."