RoydadNaft –   The director of exploration of the National Iranian Oil Company stated that the construction of the laboratory and semi-industrial pilot of oil shale has been successfully completed and said: The next stage will be the construction of the factory and now Iran has entered the cycle of oil shale.

Mehdi Fakur, in the ceremony of appreciation to the specialists and efforts of the exploration management of the National Oil Company in the projects of Paniz, Changuleh West and oil shales in the Ghalikoh area of Lorestan province, stating that the main role of exploration management is the discovery of hydrocarbon reserves, He stated: There are different methods to discover these reserves, which are updated and changed according to the conditions of these methods, but the ideal goal of discovery does not change.

He added: “If there is no perseverance and new thinking in the implementation of the plan, the plan will be half-finished and it will create a lot of costs, and if the government wants to complete the half-finished plans that were picked up by previous governments, it will take 15 years.”

The Director of Exploration of the National Iranian Oil Company stated that no country like Iran can tolerate war and sanctions for 44 years and at the same time progress, he said: We have been able to defeat the sanctions with the efforts of the creative minds of the youth.

Appreciating the hard work of the exploration management staff, Fakur stated: the burden of all the country’s exploration is currently on the shoulders of the exploration management group of the National Iranian Oil Company.

He stated that it is important to create and be creative in new methods and use these methods in the discovery of hydrocarbon reserves and fields, and added: This is one of the tasks of exploration management that must be done.

The director of exploration of the National Iranian Oil Company said: To progress in carrying out a first plan, its goal must be defined and planned for, and during the implementation of the work, using new methods, techniques and tactics, the problems were solved and the goal was reached.

Referring to the Paniz exploration project, Fakur stated: The contract for this project was signed in 2018 and it has progressed by 19% until 2021, but in the last two years, with the skill of the exploration management staff, we have reached 80% progress in this project. In the Paniz project, nearly 1,600 shots were taken in one day, which according to the work process, the art of the staff of this collection reaches, and due to the addition of the workload, we have reached 99 thousand shots to 122 thousand shots.

He continued: In Paniz project, different methods have been used according to day and night, geographical and time conditions, and we have been able to make 60% progress in two years.

The director of exploration of National Iranian Oil Company stated: An irreplaceable work has been done in the  exploratory project “Changoleh”, so that we have been able to use a 20-inch size casing in a 26-inch hole with a depth of 2,200 meters, which was done with a 2,000 horsepower rig.

Pointing out that knowledge and operations are the two arms of exploration management, Fakur said: We should not neglect knowledge, because it plays a key role in the system, and if the system moves away from knowledge, in addition to its ideal and goal being forgotten, the dynamics of the collection will also be lost. If they take knowledge from discovery, it has no essence.

Stating that the experimental and semi-industrial pilot of oil shale has been successfully completed, he said: the next stage of the construction of the factory is on a larger scale, and now Iran has entered the cycle of oil shale.

The Director of Exploration of the National Iranian Oil Company continued: There are many shale oil sources in Iran, such as Ghalikoh Lorestan, and the used shale oil extraction technology is completely indigenous and suitable for the country’s ecosystem, and no foreign company has interfered in this technology.

Fekur stated that crude oil with API 40 is scarce in the country, he clarified: The product of crude oil extracted from oil shale has this API and we are trying to raise this API and the only problem is the powder oil that remains after extraction. We can use this powder in other industries, or return it to nature if there is no environmental problem.