Qasemi said the international average is for 37 percent of the content of an oilfield to be recovered. In Iran, he said, the country is only extracting 25 percent of the oil in its fields.
Qasemi indicated that every one percentage point of added recovery would extend the life of Iran’s fields by almost another five years at the current rate of production. Pumping at the international recovery rate would add more than a half-century to Iran’s life as an oil producer.
He cited the Ferdowsi oilfield containing 34 billion barrels of oil. He said just 7 to 8 percent of all that oil will be recovered by Iran as a result of “inefficient techniques for enhancing recovery,” Shana, the news agency of the Oil Ministry, reported.
Qasemi said the yield from Iranian fields has declined over the century. That, he said, requires that Iran pay more attention to recovery techniques.
He said dozens of oil wells lay idle while pressure is dropping in reservoirs all over the country.
This was a rare admission of production problems. Qasemi has constantly insisted that Iranian production is not falling despite international estimates showing a dropoff in output for three years running. The main cause is generally attributed to Iran’s lack of access to modern technology as a result of sanctions imposed for its nuclear program.