Iran's Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) and a German company have signed a memorandum of understanding for producing fuel from residual and ultra heavy oil.
The RIPI International and Technology Affairs deputy Amir Abbas Hosseini told Iranian IRNA news agency that the German company will help RIPI in developing domestic technology for producing fuel from heavy oil, under the terms of the accord.
Hosseini said, "while the oil reserves in the Iran’s fields are changing from light to heavy, it is necessary for the country to have the technology of producing fuel from ultra-heavy oil."
In March, Iran’s total oil output hit 2.9 million barrels per day (bpd), which is about 65,000 bpd more when compared with the total oil output in February, AzerNews reported.
Iran comprises 157 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves, marking world’s fourth largest reserves of crude oil.