Iran Mulls Increasing Presence in Iraq Oil, Gas Projects

Date: 13 July 2019 - 21:37

News ID: ۶۸۰۵۸

TEHRAN (Shana) -- A number of the heads of industrial chambers in different Iraqi cities, who had visited Tehran to explore cooperation opportunities of Iranian and Iraqi companies, assessed various solutions for the effective entry of Iranian companies in Iraqi oil and gas projects.
A meeting was held in Tehran by the Energy Industries Engineering & Design (EIED) which addressed cooperation between Iranian and Iraqi companies in refining and gas distribution sectors in the cities of Babel, Nasiriyah and Basra of Iraq.
During the meeting Morteza Behia, head of the Babel Chamber of Commerce, who led the Iraqi business delegation, expressed optimism to his country to benefit from the ability of Iranian companies in the oil and gas industry.
He also stated that the Iraqi market was a favorable opportunity for Iranian industrialists, and said that the two sides could take advantage of this opportunity by developing cooperation schemes.
He voiced the Iraqi government's decision to pursue investment in oil industry projects in the cities of Nasiriyah, Babel and Diyala, saying it was a good opportunity for Iranian companies to enter the Iraqi market.
Meanwhile, deputy CEO of NIOC for development and engineering affairs Reza Dehghan said the company was planning to sign ten production maintenance and enhancement contracts with domestic firms within the next two months.
Dehghan said 33 working packages for production enhancement and maintenance projects valued at a total of $6.2 billion were defined by NIOC which would increase Iran’s crude oil production capacity by 280,000 b/d and would be developed by domestic developers.
The contracts entail domestic manufacturing of 84 industrial data-x-items by Iranian companies, he added.
The official further added that so far 10 such contracts had been signed and 10 others were being prepared to be signed within the next two months. These contracts are expected to increase Iran’s oil production capacity by 70,000 b/d.