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Procurement chief: Iranian oil industry to produce turbines in 5 years

Business Materials 21 July 2012 13:15 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, July 21/Trend M. Moezzi

In five years, Iran will be self-sufficient in producing the rotating equipment its oil industry needs, the procurement department head said.

Sadri Afgheh, managing director of the Manufacturing Support & Procurement Kala Naft Company told the mojnews.com website that as Iran has built turbines and compressors, domestic manufacturing will take time.

Iran has been focusing on manufacturing its own parts and equipment as sanctions against its oil industry have grown increasingly tougher, making it nearly impossible for the Islamic Republic to procure what it needs.

Led by the United States and its allies, the sanctions punish those countries that do business with the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) by denying their banks access to the United States financial markets. Blacklisting the CBI which involves transferring payments for exported Iranian crude oil is leading to a decrease in Iran's oil exports by 50 per cent to 1.1 million barrels per day, costing more than $3 billion which the Iranian government lost per month. Its 50 per cent of revenues relies on oil exports. The United States sanctions over the Iranian Central Bank came to force on 28 June.

The sanctions are part of an effort by the U.S. and the West to make Iran become more transparent about its nuclear development programme. Iran says its programme is peaceful and civilian in nature, while the West disagrees.

Imposing tougher sanctions means that Iran's oil carriers, or any ship carrying Iran's oil, are no longer insured as 95 percent of shipping companies are covered by the EU insurance.

EU has banned Iran's oil purchase. But Italian Eni and Spanish Reposol companies have about $1.6 billion debts from Iran because of joint oil contracts in past. Then the Union has permitted them to keep oil purchase from Iran to close Iran's debts until Sep.15, European official told Trend anonymously earlier.

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