Export of mazut is estimated to earn $4 billion in the current year (ends March 20), FNA reported.
"The oil ministry decided to reduce the rate of gas injection into oilfields for the current year in a bid to increase gas supply to power plants that use it as their main feedstock," planning manager of the National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC), Hossein Babadi said Sunday. He said that the decision was also in line with the government's plans to secure the supply of natural gas for domestic use during winter.
The oil ministry used to provide power plants with high volumes of mazut, or heavy fuel oil, as a cheap fuel, he said, adding that the Department of Environment has repeatedly called on the relevant authorities to stop the extensive supply of mazut as it has been proved to be a hazardous air pollutant.
"The money earned from the sale of mazut, a total 4 billion dollars, will be invested in the projects run by the oil ministry and its subsidiaries," according to Babadi. The Assalouyeh region, he said, also contributed to the natural gas-saving plan.
Gas injection into oil wells is a long-term process. "For some of our oilfields, the ones that have long lost their highest production rate, we have drawn 20-year plans to enhance the waning pressure," the NISOC official stated.
Gas injection is a pressure maintenance program that can be employed on a reservoir at the start of the production process or introduced after production has already started to lessen. Systematically spread throughout the field, gas-injection wells are used to inject gas and effectively sweep the formation for remaining petroleum, boosting production.
Late last year, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said power plants will need no more gasoil or mazut as enough gas will be produced in the country.
