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Iranian petroleum minister has announced the country’s plan to become self-standing in strategic oil industry commodities.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the fifth Oil &. Media Festival which was held in Tehran on Monday. Bijan Zanganeh recounted on key projects to indigenize a variety of equipment and commodities used in oil industry saying “presently. indigenizing. design and construction of 10 basic items needed in the oil and gas industry has been put on agenda of Oil Ministry as domestic manufacturing of two commonly used products will be soon finalized.”
He recalled that. sanction years. some commodities had caused several acute problems in development of Iranian oil and gas industry asserting “as such. local construction of items like downhole equipment. drilling bits and pipelines has become prioritized.”
Zanganeh said Iran had become 65% self-reliant in construction and manufacturing of various oil and gas industry commodities while the figure is expected to hit 80 per cent in case the 10 commonly used items become fully indigenized.
Iran’s oil minister however warned that. despite domestic capabilities. construction of every piece of equipment cannot have economic justifiability stressing “technologically speaking. certain goods can be domestically produced though their commercial production does not prove economical.”
Bijan Zanganeh highlighted that the main aim pursued in indigenous production of strategic commodities was to export them adding “in addition to supplying domestic demand. Iranian manufactures also need to seek presence in global markets.”
On the Saudi King Salman’s visit to Malaysia and the possibility for Malaysian firms to resign from development projects of Iran’s oil industry. the official explained “the issue needs to be followed through the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs though similar trips merely revolve around monetary issues.”
He went on to point to ongoing talks with France’s Total in order to turn the agreement in principle for expansion of South Pars Phase 11 into a contract maintaining that the French company is currently pursuing certain issued with the European Union.
The senior oil official also noted that Tota’s proposal to purchase shares of Iran LNG project would not be deemed as serious though a different mechanism was being defined in that regard.
Later. Zanganeh said he would soon divulge more information about the letter which was sent by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to Crescent Group of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He further predicted that five new South Pars phases could come on stream in late March or early April by the Iranian President.
