Since the start of the 14th administration, the National Iranian Oil Company has pursued a strategy of tying research directly to production problems, signing contracts aimed at fixing specific challenges in the field, raising recovery rates, digitizing operations and developing domestic technology.
The logic is simple: Research in the oil industry counts only when its results show up at the wellhead, in the reservoir or at the processing plant. That means more oil pulled from aging fields, fewer drilling setbacks and faster, better-informed production decisions based on real-time data.
Under that approach, NIOC has signed 22 problem-focused technology contracts with 13 leading universities and research institutes. The deals seek to develop technology, acquire technical know-how, test tools in the field, lift recovery rates and resolve issues involving reservoirs, wells and facilities. At the same time, the company has pushed into artificial intelligence, field digitization, exploration and clean energy.
The contracts span six areas: enhanced oil recovery; drilling; well stimulation and completion; reservoir characterization and simulation; real-time monitoring and digital transformation; and corrosion. Work ranges from field pilots to pilot design, manufacturing and field evaluation.
Squeezing more from reservoirs
Boosting recovery is a central part of the push. NIOC is targeting low recovery rates at the Ahvaz, Azadegan, Masjed Soleyman, Mansouri, Soroush, Koupal and Gachsaran fields.
Because reservoirs differ in rock type and structure, the company is developing different techniques: low-salinity and smart water injection, nano and surfactant injection, and polymer flooding. A pilot has been carried out at Ahvaz, and one at Azadegan is planned for the second half of the Iranian year 1405, which begins in March 2026.
Drilling
Drilling projects target problems that affect the time and quality of operations. Pilots are planned for ultralight cement at Rag-Sefid and ultraheavy cement at Bibi Hakimeh. Special drilling-mud additives and ultralight drilling mud are under development at Bibi Hakimeh and Koranj, respectively.
At South Pars, NIOC is developing drilling-fluid optimization software. At the Esfand field, engineers are using geomechanical modeling to design casing. The projects address low-pressure and high-pressure cementing, mud loss, longer drilling times and casing collapse.
Well work, with AI
In stimulation, workover and completion, NIOC is developing acidizing software that optimizes treatments in real time at the Doroud field, and an AI-based version at South Pars. Other projects include gel plugs at Alvand, polymer gel at Marun, asphaltene inhibitors at Marun and Khesht, oil-water emulsion control at Binak, and automated artificial lift at Rag-Sefid.
The company is also designing a pilot for downhole control-valve technology at Forouzan, building a lab device to design sand-control screens at Mansouri, and developing pulsed-plasma technology at Darkhovin.
Reservoir modeling
Field-scale tracer tests are planned with water-based tracers at Esfand and gas-based tracers at Darkhovin. Integrated modeling of wells, reservoirs and facilities is aimed at optimizing compressors at South Pars, surface oil pumps at Rag-e-Sefid and gas-processing plants at Tang-e-Bijar.
Other work includes closed-loop modeling under uncertainty at Alvand, condensate-blockage modeling at South Pars, reservoir geochemistry at Koranj, and mapping and assessment of surface oil seepage at Masjed Soleyman.
Shrinking the gap between data and decisions
One persistent challenge in field management is the lag between collecting data and acting on it. NIOC's real-time monitoring and digital programs aim to close it: AI and big-data tools for miscible gas injection at Darkhovin and water flooding at Esfand; a digital twin at Noruz; an integrated well-reservoir-facility management system at Gachsaran; and virtual flow metering and distributed acoustic sensing at Doroud.
131 AI projects
Artificial intelligence is among the most visible parts of the effort. By the end of 1404 (March 2026), about 131 AI projects had been proposed across exploration, production, drilling, health, safety and environment, and strategic and support functions. Of those, 55 are at the call-for-proposals stage, 32 are under way, 17 are at contract signing, 15 are in proposal consolidation and 12 have been completed.
The projects range from reservoir management to drilling and production. Examples include real-time reservoir management at Darkhovin using digital oil-field technology, integrated reservoir and surface-model software at South Pars, virtual flow-meter technology for real-time production optimization, and a production-improvement pilot at Alvand using closed-loop reservoir management.
Digitizing the fields themselves
NIOC's digital push extends beyond software to the fields themselves. Technical and economic feasibility studies for digitizing fields are complete at Darkhovin, nearly done at South Pars and Norouz, and under way at Khangiran. Digitization and smart-field projects are running at Darkhovin, Esfand, Alvand and Forouzan, while scopes of work are being finalized for Doroud, Norouz, Gachsaran and Tang-e-Bijar.
AI modeling projects include field-scale acidizing design at South Pars, AI-assisted drilling of new wells, a field and well management system for the production phase, and data-driven prediction of well performance.
Exploration
AI is also being applied to exploration: machine-learning interpretation of reflection seismic data, wax-deposition forecasting, fault detection using seismic attributes and neural networks, and AI-assisted paleontology and sedimentology studies. Others include performance forecasting for the Asmari reservoir at Ahvaz, well-logging technology, estimating thermal and electrical properties of reservoirs, and predicting water saturation in Iran's carbonate reservoirs.
A university network for exploration
NIOC has launched a structured collaboration with five universities: Shahid Beheshti, Kharazmi, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Shahrood University of Technology and Shahid Chamran. The 10-year program covers exploration geomechanics, reservoir geochemistry, surface geochemistry, subsurface imaging and carbonate-rock technologies, organized into four work packages.
The packages call for a technology roadmap, a database at laboratory, semi-industrial and industrial scales, recommendations for using selected technologies, and finally the acquisition and localization of technology. More than 30 universities, research institutes, service firms and domestic exploration-and-production companies take part, along with international universities and companies.
The program also aims to commercialize results and build infrastructure for knowledge-based startups, through specialized centers, research networks, the use of domestic startups and consulting engineers, and technology transfer with foreign partners.
Fifteen projects have been activated under the exploration program: 14 are complete, one is under way and five more are starting up. That suggests the effort has moved beyond roadmaps to concrete, measurable projects.
Universities and startups
NIOC's ties to the scientific community go beyond problem-focused contracts. It has signed and executed more than 100 research and technology contracts with universities, research centers and knowledge-based firms. More than 40 research projects have been completed, along with 18 thesis-support contracts.
It has also signed and carried out 700 contracts supporting master's and doctoral theses, plus 21 sabbatical contracts for university and research-institute faculty and 30 research-grant contracts. Together, the measures have turned academia into part of the industry's problem-solving chain.
Hydrogen
NIOC is also researching clean energy. A feasibility study on hydrogen technology in the oil industry, including a pilot, has been completed, and seven research-grant contracts on hydrogen have been signed. They cover the feasibility of producing purple hydrogen from hydrogen sulfide, storing hydrogen in underground oil and gas reservoirs, developing know-how for blue hydrogen, identifying potential source rocks for natural hydrogen in Iran's sedimentary basins, and studying hydrogen flow in porous media. A separate study examines hydrogen as an energy carrier that could ease the country's gas shortfall.
A bigger presence on the world stage
Iranian researchers are also more visible internationally. More than 70 papers and posters from Iran were accepted after final review for the 25th World Petroleum Congress, up sharply from Iran's previous best of 30 at Doha in 2011.
Six Iranian vice chairs have been named to the congress's forums, a standing that the performance report says puts Iran on par with the U.S. and Canada and ahead of the U.K., Japan, Russia and Brazil. The congress is scheduled for autumn 1405 (2026) and will include technical sessions, an exhibition and panels of ministers and executives.
In Khordad 1405 (May–June 2026), Mahdiya Motahari, NIOC's research and technology director and vice chair of Iran's national committee, was elected to the World Petroleum Council's program committee for 2026–2030. The seat lets Iran influence key congress topics and technical priorities and propose prominent speakers. According to the report, the Iranian representative's proposals on forums and sessions were accepted at the committee's first meeting.
The bottom line
NIOC's research record under the 14th administration can be summed up as a shift from research detached from the field to problem-driven, field-centered technology. The numbers: 22 problem-focused contracts with 13 institutions, 131 proposed AI projects, more than 100 research contracts, 700 thesis-support contracts, and new work in recovery, digitization, exploration and hydrogen.
Most of these programs share one goal: getting technology to the point where it can be tested and used under real field conditions, from enhanced-recovery pilots and drilling tools to smart reservoir models, virtual flow meters, digital twins and integrated well-reservoir-facility systems. In that framework, research is no longer merely a support function for the oil industry but a tool for raising output and productivity, managing assets intelligently and building new technical capacity.
NIOC says it is building a chain that starts with an industry problem, moves to universities and startups, is developed as technology, is tested in the field and can ultimately become an operational solution. If sustained, it could tie the country's scientific capacity more closely to the real needs of oil production.