But that could be the least of oilers' worries in the perfect storm coming. Oil prices opened lower yesterday as Iran and six world powers were reportedly close to bedding down a nuclear deal, as Iran recently it could add as much as 1 million barrels per day to the existing global oil oversupply.
The Islamic Republic News Agency reported yesterday that the Iranian delegation at the talks on the Iranian nuclear program believed that the final "comprehensive agreement" would be reached by yesterday regardless of the outcome.
Then this morning, diplomats told Associated Press a deal was likely to come today.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) and several banks lowered their oil price forecasts in over the past week.
"The bottom of the market may still be ahead," the IEA said in its monthly report.
"The oil market has faced persistently weak supply/demand balances for months. Now macro risks from Greece, Iran, and China are adding to the poor micro," Bank of America Merrill Lynch said, adding that US crude prices "could soon drop well below our $50 per barrel target in Q3 2015."
However, this could all just be the beginning.
Citing an unnamed energy source, the IRNA news agency reported over the weekend that preliminary operations had found "three or four" shale horizons with signs of kerogen near Kerman and southern Semnan.
The source said shale reserves had already been confirmed in Iran's Zagros Basin and near Aligudarz in the Lorestan province.
"The Garoo formation in Lorestan contains the biggest shale reserves yet and the Kajdomi formation in Gachsaran also holds a significant capacity," the source said.
Iran has just started hunting for shale assets. Iran is just scouting baut not producing unconventionals, as the export ban remains in place.
As each barrel of conventional crude oil in the Persian Gulf reportedly costs Iran between $US5-10 to retrieve versus $40-80 for shale oil, Iran's operations are restricted to exploration and identification of shale reserves, with no recovery plans for now.
According to the US Energy Information Administration's latest data updated last month, Iran already holds the world's fourth-largest proved crude oil reserves and the world's second-largest natural gas reserves.
Despite the country's abundant reserves, Iran's crude oil production has substantially declined, and natural gas production growth has been slower than expected over the past few years.
International sanctions have profoundly affected Iran's energy sector and have prompted a number of cancellations or delays of upstream oil and gas projects.
While Iran is planning to change its oil contract model to allow international oilers to participate in all phases of an upstream project, including production, international sanctions have affected foreign investment in Iran's energy sector, limiting the technology and expertise needed to expand capacity at oil and natural gas fields.
Iran holds almost 10% of the world's crude oil reserves and 13% of OPEC reserves.
About 70% of Iran's crude oil reserves are located onshore, with the remainder mostly located offshore in the Persian Gulf. Iran also holds proved reserves in the Caspian Sea, although exploration has been at a standstill.
Iran produced 3.4 million barrels per day of petroleum and other liquids last year, of which 2.8MMbpd was crude oil and the remainder was condensate and natural gas plant liquids.
The sanctions pushed Iran's crude oil production from nearly 3.7MMbpd in 2011 to 2.7MMbpd in 2013.
