Iran Builds First Domestic Oil Rig
AHVAZ, Iran (Dispatches) - Iran has unveiled its first oil rig manufactured by domestic companies, fulfilling a dream which the country’s petroleum industry cherished for long.
"A rig is a mobile plant that can be moved from one place to another. The cost of building many factories is less than the cost of building a rig, and building an oil rig is very important,” Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said.
The structure, named 72 Fath (Conquer), was unveiled in a ceremony in Ahvaz in southwest Iran where Zangeneh and other senior officials traveled to attend.
"Given the country’s capacities, we need drilling equipment and accessories for many years to come, and the construction of a rig in Iran was one of the aspirations of the oil industry which realized today,” the minister said.
The achievement is another silver lining in the dark clouds of sanctions which the US government has imposed on Iran to cripple the country for not submitting to Washington’s steep demands.
Zangeneh has said Iran’s oil, gas and petroleum sectors are on the frontline of the fight against the United States’ "maximum pressure” which President Donald Trump has primarily applied on the oil industry because it accounts for a big chunk of Iran’s hard currency earnings.
Meanwhile, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) reported that the Iranian-made toothed drilling bit has entered mass production phase.
A toothed drilling bit was unveiled and entered mass production.
The capability to manufacture such drilling bits was achieved with the technical savvy of the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR) without reserve engineering and by relying on local experts.
The National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC) has signed a contract with ACECR for mass production of 400 such bits in the southwestern province of Khuzestan within the next two years. According to the contract, a total of 870 of the bits would be supplied to NISOC.
This is the first toothed drilling bit built locally in Iran’s oil industry.
Sanctions had made it difficult for Tehran to rent oil drilling rigs, forcing Ministry of Petroleum to approach intermediaries to find one to buy. In 2011, the ministry spent $87 million to buy an oil drilling rig, but it never reached the country’s shores in what came to be known as "the case of the missing rig”.
However, the coercive measures have buoyed domestic entities which before the sanctions were a dark horse for lucrative contracts as major international companies always won them.
Iran’s oil industry has been looking inward since the sanctions came into effect in November 2018, going out of its way to put unprecedented trust in local companies for implementation of some major projects.
"A rig is a mobile plant that can be moved from one place to another. The cost of building many factories is less than the cost of building a rig, and building an oil rig is very important,” Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said.
The structure, named 72 Fath (Conquer), was unveiled in a ceremony in Ahvaz in southwest Iran where Zangeneh and other senior officials traveled to attend.
"Given the country’s capacities, we need drilling equipment and accessories for many years to come, and the construction of a rig in Iran was one of the aspirations of the oil industry which realized today,” the minister said.
The achievement is another silver lining in the dark clouds of sanctions which the US government has imposed on Iran to cripple the country for not submitting to Washington’s steep demands.
Zangeneh has said Iran’s oil, gas and petroleum sectors are on the frontline of the fight against the United States’ "maximum pressure” which President Donald Trump has primarily applied on the oil industry because it accounts for a big chunk of Iran’s hard currency earnings.
Meanwhile, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) reported that the Iranian-made toothed drilling bit has entered mass production phase.
A toothed drilling bit was unveiled and entered mass production.
The capability to manufacture such drilling bits was achieved with the technical savvy of the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR) without reserve engineering and by relying on local experts.
The National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC) has signed a contract with ACECR for mass production of 400 such bits in the southwestern province of Khuzestan within the next two years. According to the contract, a total of 870 of the bits would be supplied to NISOC.
This is the first toothed drilling bit built locally in Iran’s oil industry.
Sanctions had made it difficult for Tehran to rent oil drilling rigs, forcing Ministry of Petroleum to approach intermediaries to find one to buy. In 2011, the ministry spent $87 million to buy an oil drilling rig, but it never reached the country’s shores in what came to be known as "the case of the missing rig”.
However, the coercive measures have buoyed domestic entities which before the sanctions were a dark horse for lucrative contracts as major international companies always won them.
Iran’s oil industry has been looking inward since the sanctions came into effect in November 2018, going out of its way to put unprecedented trust in local companies for implementation of some major projects.