Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.13
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iranian manufacturers of oil and gas pipelines are facing a financial crisis, the Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian Oil Ministry official Abbasali Jafari as saying on December 13.
Currently, 80 percent of the capacity of domestic manufacturers is unused, he said.
Considering the old oil and gas pipelines in the national network, renovating and revamping the pipelines network seems to be necessary to reduce energy consumption, he explained.
In June, Iran's ex-Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi warned all the Iranian contractors to avoid importing equipment that is currently being produced domestically.
All the contractors who ignore the warning will be omitted from the list of oil ministry's contractors, the Mehr News Agency quoted Qasemi as saying.
Even if the prices of Iranian-made equipment are slightly higher, the contractors should purchase the Iranian goods, he underscored.
This comes as Chinese equipment have been largely imported for carrying out different oil and gas projects.
Iran's oil, gas and petrochemical contractors annually purchase 30 billion dollars worth of equipment. Last year the amount faced some 50 percent falling to 15 billion dollars.
Iranian-made equipment accounted for 5 billion dollars of the mentioned amount, while foreign goods especially Chinese equipment accounted for the rest.
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