Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 17 / Trend F.Milad/
Iranian Oil Terminals Company has signed four research deals, worth 40 billion rials (some $4 million), in the field of oil industry with domestic companies, Shana news agency reported.
The deals are aimed to make the country self-sufficient for designing and manufacturing sensitive parts and equipments for transferring, storing and exporting crude oil.
Up to 25 percent of parts which are used in Iran's oil industry are domestically-made, the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) managing director Abdolhossein Bayat said earlier this month.
Bayat told the ISNA news agency that 15-16 percent of the equipments are completely manufactured inside the country and if the separated parts are also taken into account, the figure would rise to 25 percent.
Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said in August 2011 that the oil industry's infrastructure needs more than 500 trillion rials (about $50 billion) of investment to achieve Iran's 20-year economic perspective plan goals.
"By the end of the fifth development plan (2015), the country's oil production must increase to 5.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and this should happen from the country's joint fields," the ISNA news agency quoted Qasemi as saying.
Iran plans to invest as much as $50 billion a year in its oil industry to maintain its position as OPEC's second-largest crude exporter and boost natural gas production, he noted.
The country needs to increase its output to 5.1 million barrels a day from current 3.9 million barrels by 2015, Qasemi said.