Iran may not reach 30 % oil recovery rate by 2010

A member of Shahid Beheshti University faculty expressed doubts about materializing the 30 % oil recovery rate until the final year of the Fourth Five-Year Development Plan (2005-10) 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.
Farshid Simbar added, “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.“

He noted, “Based on technical considerations, it is possible to increase the recovery rate by injecting gas or high pressure steam into wells, despite the huge costs involved.“
The instructor recalled that if the recovery rate can be increased from the current 25 % to 30 % by 2010, then 6.5 bn barrels of exploitable crude can be extracted each year from oil reserves.

“Given the present global oil price, which is about $ 70 per barrel, if by 2010 we can increase our reserves to 6.5 bn barrels per annum, our overall oil revenues will be 80 times the current level,” he observed.
Simbar added that Iran is not currently able to dominate the global gas markets.
“However, in the future when the demand for fossil fuel increases, the importance of Iranian gas will also rise.”

“Therefore, if we do not pursue the plan of injecting gas to oil wells, then we will be obliged to burn a large portion of gas obtained in extracting 4 mm barrels of oil per day and hence waste this invaluable product.”
“It must also be borne in mind that burning gas will lead to an increase in carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and other minerals such as lead in the atmosphere, which can cause serious environmental hazards,” he pointed out.