Addressing a ceremony to sign a contract for completing the development of South Azadegan Oilfield on Monday, Mohammad Hassan Panjehshahi said: "One of the great things that was done during the reform period was investment in the country's top universities to strengthen upstream oil fields."

Panjehshahi said that the institute had carried out several actions in the past four years with the cooperation of its French partner, based on which the priority of injection in different reservoirs of Azadegan had been determined and the ability to increase the oil recovery coefficient by 10% had been concluded. “With this increase in recovery rate, the current recovery rate, which is about 5%, will reach 15%.”

He added that the cooperation of the Petroleum Institute with its French partner had continued under the sanctions, adding: “Increasing productivity by reducing drilling of low-efficiency wells, optimizing the location of wells, creating an integrated field database, proving a hydraulic relationship with Yaran field and technology transfer are other achievements of technological studies on Azadegan.”