He said a 100-billion-rial feasibility study project is under way in the Bangestan reservoir of Ahvaz field.

Emadi said this field is currently producing 17 degrees api crude oil, adding that recovery from Ahvaz is planned to be raised by 5 to 8 percent.

He said projects have been defined in 11 fields including enhanced recovery, oil and gas reservoirs management and control modeling, geosciences, integrated databank, environment, energy efficient use, chemical materials and preservation of oil and gas production.

Emadi said 218 research projects have been conducted and 133 more are being endorsed.

These projects, he said, are expected to be implemented in the coming five years with a budget around 4.5 trillion rials.

Emadi also said that NIOC’s research budget allocation was five million euros plus 150 billion rials in the Iranian year to March 2013.