France’s IFP Energies Nouvelles has expressed interest in collaborating with Iran’s Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, the Oil Ministry’s scientific arm, in state-of-the-art oil recovery technologies.
Didier Houssin, managing director of the French institute, made the statement on the sidelines of a ceremony to sign a memorandum of understanding with RIPI for cooperation in eight technological fields, Shana reported.
Located in Rueil-Malmaison, France, IFP is France’s top public-sector research and training center.
The collaboration will focus on reservoir studies, boosting extraction from Iran’s oil and gas fields, gas sweetening methods and protecting the environment.
“During the negotiations, we concluded that the two sides face similar challenges in research. We can hopefully address the challenges as we open a new chapter in relations,” Houssin said.
The official noted that boosting extraction from Iran’s oilfields is a challenging task due to the formation of some of the hydrocarbon reservoirs which make it difficult to access crude oil trapped in deep layers. However IFP is keen to overcome the challenges in cooperation with RIPI, said the French official.
Iran is planning to raise crude output to 4.7 million barrels per day and produce 1 million bpd of condensate by March 2021. Voicing satisfaction with the signing of the MoU and the prospects for cooperation with Iran’s top research institute in the oil sector, Houssin lauded RIPI’s skilled workforce and its research facilities.
“IFP is willing to provide educational services to the RIPI staff,” he said.
Focus on Joint Fields
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in a statement this week that Iran’s oil revenues will rise by a whopping $350 billion in the long run if extraction rate from the existing oilfields increases by merely 1%.
Zanganeh also called for establishing an organization with a focus on raising crude recovery, particularly from the joint oilfields.
First Vice-President Es’haq Jahangiri has often criticized the former government’s policies in the oil and gas industry. He stressed that years of lassitude gave the neighboring Arab states the leeway to exploit the joint fields in full force and at the expense of Iran’s national interest.
Iran, which was once the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, slipped to fifth place under the sanctions. It is now the group’s third-largest producer after Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Jahangiri also pointed to the 150-million-cubic-meter-per-day rise in gas production following the launch of new phases of South Pars Gas Field after President Hassan Rouhani took office in 2013.
He called for upholding the values of the ‘Resistance Economy’ in the oil sector, which seeks to reduce the sales of raw materials, increase value added and boost petrochemical exports. Resistance Economy is a set of guidelines proposed by the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei to help augment domestic production, promote locally-produced goods and curb dependence on oil export revenues.
