Shana � A senior petroleum official says employing the newly-devised Iran petroleum contracts (IPC) is crucial for enhancing recover of oil and gas from Iran's reserves.

Gholamreza Manouchehri, the deputy for development and engineering at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said on Saturday that IPC is focused on fields' development in the long-run.

"These deals oblige operators to develop the fields in a 20-year period and offer a specified amount of hydrocarbons at the end of every phase of the contract period," he said.

He also said that the IPC can be adopted both for developed and undeveloped fields, saying that unfortunately drilling operations�in Iran�are 50% slower than international norms.
"We have to admit that the era of cheap oil production is over which means advanced technologies must be employed for producing oil economically."