The Fars News Agency report based its projection on a 25-percent recovery factor from 106 billion barrels of in-place oil in the waters of the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea.
Managing-Director of the Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh said recently that Iran sits atop more than 96 billion barrels of in-place oil in the Persian Gulf.
Furthermore, Khazar Exploration and Production Company (KEPCO) has put at 10 billion barrels the oil content of Sardar-e-Jangal hydrocarbon field, which was discovered in March 2011.
Iran envisages a one-percent recovery enhancement from its oil reserves by 2015 when the country’s Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan ends.
On January 21, Deputy Oil Minister Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr said Iran has discovered 14 billion barrels of crude oil reserves during the first three quarters of the current Persian calendar year (started March 20, 2012).
He pointed to Iran’s 300-percent progress in the discovery of oil and natural gas resources and noted that the Oil Ministry is currently ahead of its discovery plans.
“Even in the absence of new discoveries, Iran will be capable of producing oil for the next 140 years,” Khojasteh-Mehr pointed out.
Iran's total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels, with about 140 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Moreover, heavy and extra-heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.
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