Tehran, Iran, May 9
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Italian and Iranian valve makers have reached agreement to jointly produce oil equipment that Iran needs but has not yet started producing.
All the companies involved in arranging the MoU were highly optimistic and welcomed the decision, Saeid Ahangaran, secretary of the Society of Iranian Petroleum Industry Equipment Manufacturers told Trend May 7 on the sidelines of Iran's international oil, gas, and petroleum exhibition in Tehran.
"We hope that the recent developments and Iran's economic opening to the world allow us to establish vast relations with the world. We need relations because we need the state-of-the-art technology to refurbish the industry," he added.
Iran was freed from sanctions early this year. The country's oil industry, which is its main source of income, has thus remained old-fashioned. The government is attempting to refurbish the industry as quickly as possible.
Ahangaran said Iran is taking much care so that future cooperation with the world companies does not end in the mere sale of products to Iranian partners.
"The Iranian oil industry is based on the American API standard. So our companies are more inclined toward working with American and European brands than Eastern ones, despite meaningful difference in prices," Ahangaran said.
Under sanctions, Iran mostly relied on Chinese-made goods, not only intermediary industrial goods but consumer goods as well. But Iranians have paid the price by getting low-quality goods. Before sanctions, Iran mostly procured its intermediary and consumer goods from Europe.