Oil Ministry to Support Domestic Manufacturers via New Initiatives

Iranian Oil Ministry has started new initiatives to support domestic manufacturers by guaranteeing to purchase their quality items needed in the oil industry.

“The first phase of nine contracts in the upstream sector, five exploration contracts, and 12 contracts for construction of downstream institutes with universities have been carried out and their second phase is about to commence,” Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said on Monday, addressing the first innovation event of the Iranian Oil Ministry, dubbed ‘Petroleum Takeoff’.

Noting that "back in 1997, no Iranian university enrolled students in the upstream sector of the oil industry,," Zanganeh said, the ministry is now doing well in this field and is planning to engage more universities in solving oil industry’s problems and that the industry will support them in return.

In a relevant development on Sunday, Zangeneh announced that the country’s Patropars Company has been awarded to take charge of the engineering, exploration and basic design sections of Farzad B Gas Field Development Project.

“The company had signed a contract for developing the offshore project with the National Iranian Oil Company, a contract which has been signed off by the board of directors of NIOC,” Zangeneh said.

The Iranian oil minister added that an investment of $75 million was to be made in the project by tapping the domestic resources of NIOC in the first phase.

He noted that the remaining capital for financing the project is expected to be procured under buyback or IPC contracts.

“Developing Phase 11 of the South Pars gas field was also fully awarded to Petropars,” Zangeneh said.