Iran’s in-place crude oil reserves in the Persian Gulf have reached 100 billion barrels according to estimates, managing director of Iranian Offshore Oil Company said on Sunday.
“Latest data show recoverable oil reserves stand at 16 billion barrels in the Persian Gulf, but we look forward to raising the extraction rate by implementing new recovery techniques,” Saeed Hafezi was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
According to the Oil & Gas Journal, Iran has an estimated 158 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, representing almost 10% of the world’s crude reserves and 13% of reserves held by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
“Iran so far has drawn 7.8 billion barrels of oil from its Persian Gulf reservoirs,” Hafezi noted without specifying a timeframe. “Around 8.2 billion more barrels are extractable.”
Officials said last month the country’s in-place oil reserves had increased by 2.5 billion barrels, using enhanced oil recovery techniques such as gas injection that maintains reservoir pressure and improves oil displacement.
The Persian Gulf country also sits on some of the world’s largest gas reserves.
According to Hafezi, natural gas reserves, excluding the giant South Pars field shared with Qatar, amount to more than 5 billion cubic meters, with the rate of extraction from gas reservoirs in the Persian Gulf at 75%.
But South Pars’ reserves, which roughly equals 8% of the world’s reserves, dwarfs the 5 billion cubic meters of reserves in marginal and less developed gas fields scattered across the country.
South Pars is the world’s largest gas field shared by Iran and Qatar. Iran is making concerted efforts to become a major supplier of natural gas by developing its South Pars extraction and processing facilities.
The US Energy Information Association places Russia ahead of Iran with an estimated 49 tcm in reserves. Iran, Russia and Qatar together hold nearly half the world’s proven gas reserves.
Tehran has plans to boost gas output from South Pars to 1.2 bcm by 2020 to outpace Doha which, for years, has been drawing gas at a faster rate, thanks to its huge investment and advanced technology.
