Proven oil reserves in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, according to its government, rank fourth largest in the world at approximately as of 2013, although it ranks third if Canadian reserves of

unconventional oil Unconventional (oil and gas) reservoirs, or unconventional resources (resource plays) are Petroleum geology, accumulations where oil and gas Phase (matter), phases are tightly bound to the rock fabric by strong capillary action, capillary forces, ...

are excluded. This is roughly 10% of the world's total proven petroleum reserves. At 2020 rates of production, Iran's oil reserves would last 145 years if no new oil was found. According to

NIOC The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC; ) is a government-owned national oil and natural gas producer and distributor under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran. NIOC was established in 1951 and restructured under The Consortium A ...

, Iran recoverable liquid hydrocarbon reserves at the end of 2006 was 138.4 billion barrels. Apart from these considerable reserves, from the outset of oil industry in Iran in 1908 to the end of 2007, Iran produced some 61 billion barrels of oil.

has more than a century of history in exploration and production; the first successful exploration well was Masjid Suleiman-1 on May 26, 1908. Since then, based on the latest oil and gas reports, 145 hydrocarbon fields and 297 oil and gas reservoirs have been discovered in Iran, with many fields having multiple pay zones. A total of 102 fields are oil and the remaining 43 are gas, and there are 205 oil reservoirs and 92 natural gas reservoirs. According to Iran Energy Balance Sheet (2009, in Persian), 78 of these fields are currently active, with 62 onshore and 16 offshore, leaving 67 fields inactive at present. Some 23 hydrocarbon fields lie in border areas and are shared between Iran and adjacent countries, including Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan.Persia Land of Black Gold
Retrieved 2012-4-14. Iranian production peaked at in 1974, but it has been unable to produce at that rate since the 1979

Iranian revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

due to a combination of political unrest, war with Iraq, limited investment, US sanctions, and a high rate of natural decline. Iran's mature oil fields are in need of

enhanced oil recovery Enhanced oil recovery (abbreviated EOR), also called tertiary recovery, is the extraction of crude oil from an oil field that cannot be extracted after primary and secondary recovery methods have been completely exhausted. Whereas primary and se ...

(EOR) techniques such as gas injection to maintain production, which is declining at an annual rate of approximately 8% onshore and 10% offshore. With current technology it is only possible to extract 20% to 25% of the

oil in place Oil in place (OIP) (not to be confused with original oil-in-place (OOIP)) is a specialist term in petroleum geology that refers to the total oil content of an oil reservoir. As this quantity cannot be measured directly, it has to be estimated from ...

from Iran's fractured carbonate reservoirs, 10% less than the world average. It is estimated that 400,000-700,001 bbl/d of crude production is lost annually due to declines in the mature oil fields.

Largest oil fields

The five biggest Iran's oil fields;The 8th IIES International Conference "Energy Security and New Challenges", held in 29–30 November 2003, IRIB Conference Center, Tehran, Iran

Additions to reserves

oil reserves at the beginning of 2001 were reported to be about 99 billion barrels; however in 2002 the result of NIOC's study showed huge reserves upgrade adding about 31.7 billion barrels of recoverable reserves to the Iranian oil reserves. The 2002 NIOC reserve revision came from the following sources: * Revision of oil-in-place volume which added 14,3 billion barrels of oil to Iran's Oil in place reserves. * Revision of the field's recovery factors which increased average recovery factor of the revised oil fields from 29% to 36%. *

South Pars gas field The South Pars/North Dome field is a natural-gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is by far the world's largest natural gas field, IEA, World Energy Outlook 2008 - Chapter 12 - Natural gas resources and production prospects, p.29 ...

liquefied petroleum gas Liquefied petroleum gas, also referred to as liquid petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas), is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, Butane, ''n''-butane and isobutane. It can also contain some ...

reserves (C₃ and C₄) about 3,2 billion recoverable barrels. * New discoveries about 700 million recoverable barrels. In addition to the large reserves, Iran still has huge potential for new significant gas discoveries: areas like Caspian Sea, North East, Central Kavir and especially areas starting from Aghar and Dalan gas fields in Fars province up to the

Strait of Hormuz The Strait of Hormuz ( ''Tangeh-ye Hormoz'' , ''Maḍīq Hurmuz'') is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world's most strategica ...

and Central Persian Gulf have considerable amount of undiscovered gas resources. According to Exploration Directorate of

, there are about 150 unexplored anticlines in Iran. Since 1995, the

National Iranian Oil Company The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC; ) is a government-owned national oil and natural gas producer and distributor under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran. NIOC was established in 1951 and restructured under The Consorti ...

(NIOC) has made significant oil and gas discoveries, standing for some of oil in place and at least of gas in place, which are listed below. In the Zagros and

Persian Gulf Basin The Persian Gulf Basin (), also known as the Arabian Gulf Basin (), is found between the Eurasian and the Arabian plate. The Persian Gulf is described as a shallow marginal sea of the Indian Ocean that is located between the south western side of ...

s the highly porous Cretaceous and Tertiary carbonate rocks make very important oil reservoirs, while Permo-Triassic carbonates, particularly the Dalan and Kangan formations, are the main gas and condensate reservoirs. It is reported that 38 gas/condensate pools have been discovered in the Dalan and Kangan formations in these basins alone. The mid-Cretaceous Sarvak formation is significant for the volume of recoverable oil it holds, while the Oligo-Miocene Asmari formation is the best current producer. {, class="wikitable" , +NIOC Oil Discoveries Since 1995. !Field's Name !Oil in Place !Recoverable Oil !Discovery Year , - , , Billion Barrel , Billion Barrel , , - , Azadegan , 33.2 , 5.2 , , - ,

Yadavaran The Yadavaran Field is an oil field in Khuzestan, Iran. Discovered by the NIOC, it is made up of two former fields, Koushk (discovered in 2000) and Hosseinieh (discovered in 2002). After researchers discovered that the two fields were actually ...

(Kushk+Hosseinieh) , 17 , 3 , , - , Ramin , 7.398 , 1.11 , 2007 , - , South Pars Oil Layer , 6 , NA , , - , Band-E-Karkeh , 4.5 , NA , 2007 , - , Mansour Abad , 4.45 , NA , 2007 , - , ChangolehNIOC Official News Agency,(www.Sahan.ir), October 15, 2007, , 2.7 , NA , , - , AzarNIOC Official Web Site,(www.NIOC.ir),{{cite web, url=http://www.nioc.ir/news/In%20Accoompany%20with%20National%20Iranian%20Oil%20Company/files/2.htm , title=Oil and gas reserves – Exploration , access-date=April 11, 2008 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612114854/http://www.nioc.ir/news/In%20Accoompany%20with%20National%20Iranian%20Oil%20Company/files/2.htm , archive-date=June 12, 2008 , 2.07 , NA , 2007 , - , Paranj , 1.6 , NA , 2007 , - , Andimeshk (Balaroud) , 1.1 , 0.233 , 2007 , - , Binalood , 0.776 , 0.099 , 2008 , - , Mansouri-Khami layer , 0.760 , NA , , - , Jofeyr-Fahliyan layer , 0.750 , NA , 2008 , - , Asaluyeh , 0.525 , NA , 2008 , - , Arvand , 0.500 , NA , 2008 , - , SumarNIOC Official News Agency,(www.Shana.ir)

{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604170324/http://www.shana.ir/151741-fa.html, date=2012-06-04 , 0.475 , 0.070 , 2010 , - , Tusan , 0.470 , NA , 2006 , - , Arash , 0.168 , NA , , - , Total , 84.442 , NA , , -

References

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External links

The Asmari Giant Reservoirs

Persia Land of Black Gold

Britain's Major Plunder of Iranian Oil in 1903

External links

{{Energy in Iran {{Oil reserves country articles {{DEFAULTSORT:Oil Reserves in Iran

Geology of Iran

Largest oil fields

Additions to reserves

See also

References

External links

External links