page_title: National Iranian Oil Company
section_title: NIOC's Oil Reserves
hierarchical_section_title: National Iranian Oil Company / NIOC's Oil Reserves
caption_attribution_description: English: Key Petroleum Sector facilities (2004) Iran (Wall Map) 2004 "Iran Country Profile" Iran map with insets: Population Density, Ethnoreligious Distribution, Key Petroleum Sector Facilities, Southern Caspian Energy Prospects and Strait Of Hormuz (2.5M) (source: CIA map) http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/iran_country_profile_2004.jpg
context_page_description: The National Iranian Oil Company is a government-owned national oil and natural gas producer and distributor under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran. NIOC was established in 1948 and restructured under The Consortium Agreement of 1954. NIOC ranks as the world's second largest oil company, after Saudi Arabia's state-owned Aramco.
  The NIOC is exclusively responsible for the exploration, drilling, production, distribution and export of crude oil, as well as exploration, extraction and sales of natural gas and liquefied natural gas. NIOC exports its surplus production according to commercial considerations determined by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and at the prices prevalent in the international markets. In early 2015 NIOC's recoverable liquid hydrocarbon reserves was156.53 billion barrels and recoverable gas reserves were 33.79×10¹² m³. Current NIOC production capacities include over 4 million barrels of crude oil and in excess of 750 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. Iran's overall export crude oil was valued at US$85 billion in 2010.
context_section_description: According to OPEC, NIOC recoverable liquid hydrocarbon reserves at the end of 2006 was 1,384 billion barrels (2.200×10¹¹ m³).
  NIOC oil reserves at the beginning of 2001 was reported to be about 99 billion barrels (1.57×10¹⁰ m³), however in 2002 the result of NIOC's study showed huge reserves upgrade adding about 317 billion barrels (5.04×10¹⁰ m³) of recoverable reserves to the Iranian oil reserves.
  After 2003 Iran made some significant discoveries which led to addition of another 7.7 billion barrels (1.22×10⁹ m³) of oil to the recoverable reserves of Iran.
  The vast majority of Iran's crude oil reserves are located in giant onshore fields in the south-western Khuzestan region near the Iraqi border. Overall, Iran has 40 producing fields – 27 onshore and 13 offshore. Iran's crude oil is generally medium in sulfur and in the 28°-35 °API range.
  As at 2012, 98 rigs are in operation in onshore fields, 24 in offshore fields and a single rig is in operation in the Caspian Sea. Iran plans to increase the number of its drilling rigs operating in its onshore and offshore oilfields by 36 units to reach 134 units by March 2014.
  Table 1- The biggest NIOC oil fields;
caption: Iranian oil and gas fields, infrastructure
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