Minister Lauds Iranian Company for Making 200 Turbines

“More than 200 set of 25-megawatt turbines and compressors have been supplied by the OTC across the country, all of them manufactured inside (Iran) and relying on the domestic knowledge,” said Namdar Zanganeh, on the sidelines of his visit to an OTC production site in Tehran on Monday, adding that the equipment made by the OTC is currently used across Iran’s oil and gas industry and on a wide scale.

He added that key equipment used in oil and gas fields is currently manufactured inside the country without any direct support of the industrial giants of the world.

The minister said that the OTC, once a partner with German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG, had been awarded around €3.6 billion worth of contracts on manufacturing and maintenance of devices used in the oil and gas industry.

He said the company had also made an investment of around €200 million to expand its services in the field.

Namdar Zanganeh admitted the fact that Siemens, once responsible for the bulk of the work on turbines and compressors in Iran’s oil and gas industry, had fulfilled its commitments on technology transfer to its Iranian partner before it stopped doing business in Iran under the pressure of the sanctions.

“One should be fair, Siemens technology transfer was perfect as it has provided the staff of this company (OTC) with proper training,” he said while insisting that Siemens withdrawal from Iran in 2010 triggered the process for indigenization of key oilfield equipment in the country.

Namdar Zanganeh said Siemens has certified the compressors and turbines manufactured by the OTC, allowing Iran to use the equipment in the oil and gas industry with more confidence.

In July, Namdar Zanganeh announced that the country successfully completed installing a super-size drilling rig at South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, the largest in the world, without any foreign company involved after Tehran made its industries self-sufficient to defy the US unilateral sanctions.

He announced that the 2,400-ton platform, dubbed SPD-14B, had been mounted earlier in the day by Iranian crew and experts in Persian Gulf waters off the Southern Iranian coast.

Iran has already installed 14A and 14C platform as part of the development plan at South Pars phase 14.

Namdar Zanganeh said eight similar drilling rigs made by Iranian companies would be installed in other projects until the end of the current Iranian calendar year in March, bringing Iran’s output from its offshore gas fields to 27 billion cubic feet (nearly 800 million cubic meters) per day.

Iran has sought to increase its daily production at oil and gas fields despite sanctions imposed by the United States which restricts Tehran’s ability for export.

Zanganeh had said earlier this year that Iran’s gas production at South Pars had already exceeded 21.5 billion feet (610 million cubic meters) per day, adding that Iran’s share of daily production at the field had dwarfed that of Qatar.

He also said last week that Tehran was negotiating with China to sort out the country’s role in South Pars phase 11, a project where the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has been accused of foot-dragging.

The CNPC has held an 80 percent stake in the project since France’s Total withdrew last summer under US pressure.

Back in mid-December 2018, Head of Exploration at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Seyed Saleh Hendi said US’ unilateral sanctions against Tehran have led Iran to self-sufficiency in producing equipment for oil and gas production.

In 2014, Managing Director of the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) Ali Akbar Safayee announced that the country has attained self-sufficiency in the construction of offshore oil platforms despite the sanctions imposed by the West.