ABSTRACT
Most of the exploration and development effort in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) by both the international as well as national oil companies themselves has been directed toward crude oil discovery. In the absence of large markets—domestic, regional, or international—for natural gas, many OPEC countries have had little incentive to step up exploration or, equally important, development efforts; thus, the limits of many key deposits have yet to be determined. Within OPEC, the single largest concentration of proven reserves of natural gas has been found in Iran. About one-third of OPEC proven reserves of natural gas are of the associated kind, and the balance is non-associated, found primarily in Iran, Qatar, the Neutral Zone, and Algeria. In 1983, some 2,707 bcf or 29 percent of gross production of natural gas in the OPEC countries were reinjected into crude oil fields for secondary recovery purposes.
