The Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, also known as NIOC-RIPI, often shortened to RIPI (Persian: پژوهشگاه صنعت نفت) is a governmental research institute founded in 1959 in Tehran, Iran and is affiliated with National Iranian Oil Company. The institute is a major research institute in Iran and is the largest of its kind in the Middle East. RIPI has become a major technology provider for Iran's petroleum industry. In 2002, it developed a technology that converts heavy crude oil into the more desirable, a new generation of GTL technology. Source: Wikipedia (en)