TEHRAN, July 20 (Shana) � France's IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) is to cooperate with the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) for technological development of Ahvaz field.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony to ink a Memorandum of Understanding� (MoU) with French IFP Group on Tuesday, RIPI Head Hamid-Reza Katouzian said that based on contracts for technological development of storage tanks in the upstream sector of the oil industry, that will be enforced in cooperation with the country's research centers and universities, technological studies on Ahvaz field will be entrusted to the RIPI, which intends to cooperate with IFP in that connection.

He said that the two bodies will also cooperate in studies on Yadavaran field.

He added that the RIPI and IFPEN have been cooperating for a long time but due to sanctions the cooperation fell to some extent.

Based on a memorandum of understanding (MoU), �RIPI and IFPEN will launch cooperation in 8 energy-related technological grounds.

Accordingly, the two sides have agreed to cooperate in upstream and downstream areas in petroleum industry in topics like study of reservoirs, enhanced oil recovery, gas sweetening and emission of pollutants.

From RIPI, Mohammad Reza Katouzian and from IFP, Didier Houssin signed the document at RIPI's headquarters in Tehran on Tuesday.

Addressing a ceremony to sign the deal, the IFPEN official said Iran and France will cooperate on study of enhanced oil recovery from Iranian fields.

"During the talks that we had, we concluded that the two sides have similar challenges in petroleum industry research and we hope such challenges will be solved by mutual interactions between the two sides," Didier Houssin said in the ceremony.

He said many of Iran's oil fields are complicated ones and IFPEN intends to close ranks with RIPI for locating EOR methods for boosting oil recovery from the fields.

"RIPI is seeking to enjoy the training programs offered by IFPEN," said Katouzian for his part at the ceremony.

Based on the deal, the two sides have agreed to cooperate in areas such as studies over fields and reservoirs, EOR, gas sweetening and environmental areas, he added.

Furthermore, IFPEN has agreed to cooperate with RIPI on studies over Yadavaran join oilfield.

He also said that the two sides are considering signature of several deals in the future.

Meanwhile, Head of National Iranian Oil Company's (NIOC) Research and Technology Department Ebrahim Taleqani said on Tuesday that undoubtedly, the RIPI's cooperation with IFPEN can help improve research activities in storage studies.

By SHANA