It was the first public sign of recognition from the Oil Ministry that the country is in serious trouble as its oil output is falling almost every month.
The regime regularly issues news releases about new oilfields coming on stream. But it says nothing about declining output from aging oilfields. The new fields are simply nowhere near keeping up with the decline in old oilfields.
The accompanying chart, which collects the monthly output reports from Platt’s, a major industry publication, shows that Iran’s total output has fallen by more than 7 percent in just 2 1/2 years, a devastating decline.
Mohammad-Reza Moqaddam, the deputy oil minister for research and technology, last week told Shana, the Oil Ministry’s news service, that getting more oil out of old fields would be his top priority in the new year.
He said the ministry has created a consortium of “a number” of academic centers through which knowledge will be pooled to launch a “scientific jihad” to boost the recovery rate at the old fields.
He said he expected the consortium to generate a synergy of research while avoiding duplicative efforts and reducing the costs of research.
He said that in advanced countries industries announce their needs to universities and offer funding so that professors and students can be galvanized to address those needs. Moqaddam said that is “a successful model we are seeking to follow.”
He didn’t say why the Oil Ministry was only pursuing that course now after years of declining oil production.
The government has long promoted nuclear work in the nation’s universities of just the type Moqaddam says is now needed for oil technology.
