Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 21
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has banned buying or renting drilling rigs from foreign countries, Roknoddin Javadi, the company's managing director said.
In a letter to the companies affiliated with the NIOC, Javadi emphasized that while Iranian-made offshore and onshore drilling rigs are available in the country renting or buying foreign rigs is banned, Iran's Mehr news agency reported Feb. 21.
The ban letter was submitted to National Iranian South Oil Company, Iranian Central Oil Fields Company, Petroleum Engineering and Development Company, Iranian Offshore Oil Company, Arvandan Oil and Gas Company, Pars Oil and Gas Company and National Iranian Drilling Company.
In 2011, Iran's oil ministry website quoted then Deputy Oil Minister Hamdollah Mohammadnejad as saying that the country reached self-sufficiency in building onshore drilling rigs.
At that time, Mohammadnejad said that five domestic companies were manufacturing onshore drilling rigs through reverse engineering and indigenizing the required technology.
The National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC), North Drilling Company, Naft Kav, Sepanta, MAPNA, GPTC, and Tadbir are the companies currently using drilling rigs around Iran.
Based on OPEC data, 54 drilling rigs are currently operating in Iran.
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