Azerbaijan , Baku, March 30 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /
Iran produces 60 percent of its oil drilling equipments domestically, Moj News Agency reported quoting the Managing Director National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) Haidar Bahmani as saying.
Bahmani said that more than 120,000 different types of equipment are being used for drilling operations of the oil industry in onshore and offshore fields.
NIDC has not only increased its drilling machines from 6 to 60 since its establishment in 1979 but has taken great leaps forward in improving its drilling equipments and equipping them in accordance with the latest technologies of the world, Bahmani said earlier.
NIDC has succeeded to drill and complete 185 oil and gas wells in onshore and offshore fields of the country over the last Iranian year (ended on March 20, 2011), Bahmani added.
Bahmani said that the number of drilled and completed wells had been increased by 50 wells compared to the similar period of last year.
Bahmani said that roughly 94 wells of 185 oil and gas wells drilled over the mentioned period were under development, five exploratory and 86 needed repairing.
Referring to the ownership of 63 drilling rigs by the company, the official stated that the company had drilled 354,000 meters of oil and gas wells onshore and offshore of 10 provinces of the country last Iranian year up to 20,000 meters compared to similar period of the previous year.
The official said that the company has offered engineering and technical services in 6,565 cases over the last Iranian year or up by 5 percent compared to the previous year.
More than $200 million have been invested in modernizing equipments of the drilling sector in last two years, Bahmani said earlier.
He added that the company uses the latest know how in drilling besides using top drive, mud processing, directional, horizontal and under balanced drilling.
"At present, fifteen teams of NIDC experts are involved in offering directional and horizontal drilling services", Bahmani added.
Bahmani said that more than 4,000 Iranian experts in different technical and engineering divisions of the company are in charge of leading drilling operations now.
Earlier, Iranian Deputy Minister of Petroleum for Planning and Supervision on Hydrocarbon Resources, Mohsen Khojastemehr, said that 2,400 oil wells will be drilled over the Fifth Five Year Development Plan lasting by 2016.
Khojastemehr said about $150 billion would be invested in the upstream sector over the Fifth Five Year Development Plan, of which $40 billion would be allocated for well drilling.
NIDC, as a subsidiary of NIOC in the upstream sector is in charge of 90 percent of drilling of oil and gas wells all over the county.
Iran is OPEC's second-largest oil producer. It ranks second in terms of natural gas reserves after Russia in the world.