The Institut Français du Pétrole (IFP) is an independent research and industrial development, education and training, and information center active in the fields of oil, natural gas, and the automobile. Its activities cover all aspects of oil and gas industry: exploration, production, refining, petrochemicals, engines, and the use of petroleum products.

IFP's calling is to develop the technologies that will allow sustainable growth of the oil, gas and automobile industries and preserve the environment. IFP's research and development (R&D) is undertaken with a view to sustainable growth – security of supply and protection of the environment – and industrial applications; it is organized around the four fundamental areas of the oil and gas sector: Exploration-Reservoir Engineering, Drilling-Production, Refining-Petrochemicals, and Engines-Energy.
The research programs, drawn up each year in close collaboration with industry, are implemented by twelve Research Divisions possessing all the necessary scientific know-how and technical resources. The work of these Divisions is based on a significant volume of advanced fundamental and exploratory research, conducted alone or in partnership with the scientific, technical and industrial communities, both in France and abroad. IFP's research work produces a continual stream of innovations that enrich its scientific and technological assets - its portfolio of living patents currently totals more than 15,300.
IFP exploits the natural synergy between research and education through the IFP School. Open to college graduates from anywhere in the world, the School offers a broad range of programs in disciplines related to the oil, gas and automobile industries, extended by continuing professional training in the courses offered by ENSPM Formation Industrie. Scientific, technical, and economic information, an essential raw material for both R&D and education, is an activity in its own right at IFP, engaged in on behalf both of institutional players and of the oil and gas industry.
Its direct subsidiaries and its holdings in oil service and supply companies place IFP at the head of a group on an international scale - with activities covering the whole oil service and supply sector, from consulting to engineering and the supplying of products, equipment, and services - that is an important outlet for the industrial development of its technological innovations.
IFP works as a sole organization, leader or partner in several presently running projects: RECOPOL, ICBM, NGGAS, CO2STORE, ReGaSeq, CO₂ storage, INSTORES, PICOR. IFP has a long experience on reservoir gas and CO₂ injection for oil recovery purposes (more than 20 years experience, large number of publications/conference papers and patents).