Iranian petroleum industry is a large and vastly developed industry with highly rated and valuable resources and capabilities as evidenced by a review of the following data and general information: NIOC controls huge deposits of crude oil from which over 130.798 billion barrels can be exploited in the form of primary and secondary recoveries.
The huge reserves of natural gas put Iran in the second place, in terms of the natural gas reserve quantity, among other countries, only next to the Russian Federation, with an estimate of proven reserve quantity close to 23 bcm. There are, at present, eight (8) refineries and one (1) refinery complex in the country with a total refining capacity of over 1,5 mb/d. Abundance of basic material, like natural gas, in the country provide favorable conditions for development and expansion of petrochemical plants.
Thus NPC has succeeded in the recent years in producing a wide range of petrochemicals and increasing its production, in terms of quantity, to a new level.
Concurrent with the expansion of petroleum industry and the need for some changes in its organizational structure, certain radical and noteworthy reforms were made, in the recent years, in the organizational structure of Iranian petroleum industry.