The National Iranian Drilling Company can have a stronger presence in offshore and onshore oilfields, managing director of the firm said.
“Our drilling fleet is growing in number and making advances in technology. We can and will undertake more projects in the oil-rich regions, especially in Khuzestan,” Abdollah Mousavi was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Mousavi said his company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, has 70% of the domestic drilling market.
The company drilled and repaired 114 onshore and offshore oil and gas wells in 2019.
"With three offshore and 70 onshore rigs, NIDC drilled 163,000 meters of oil and gas wells nationwide in the last fiscal that ended in March."
Rejecting rumors in the media (Fars News Agency) on Saturday, that claimed NIDC has decommissioned 20 drilling rigs and furloughed 4,000 skilled workers, engineers and technicians, the official said all offshore and onshore drilling platforms are either operating or moved to new locations. “No worker has been furloughed.”
This is not the first time the semi-official news agency spread incorrect news about drilling rigs.
Besides drilling, the company provides over 30% of technical services to the oil industry, namely well logging, cementing and acidizing, drill stem test, well testing, training, development and general services
On Saturday, the agency quoted oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, as saying that NIDC should remove 20 rigs irrespective of the fate of the staff.
According to the drilling company chief, when projects are completed machinery and equipment is transferred to new locations which normally takes between two weeks to 30 days.
During the transfer process some workers will be idle until new projects get off the ground “but this does not mean they have been terminate.”
The state-owned NIDC has 20,000 workers. “Drilling rigs operate round the clock and work stops only for overhaul."
Two advanced and domestically-manufactured drilling rigs (Fath 71, Fath 72) were added to the NIDC fleet in 2018 and 2019 and another platform (Fath 73) will be commissioned in a few months.
Local Manufactures
Mousavi asserted that using domestically-made goods and services is a top priority as it promotes knowledge-based firms.
NIDC says it has indigenized over 5,000 drilling parts in collaboration with domestic manufactures and engineers in the past two decades.
The indigenized equipment, accounting for almost 80% of the industry's needs, include drilling mud pumps, blowout preventers, traction motors, draw-works, drilling fluid recycling systems, mission centrifugal pumps, top drives and drilling rig slow circulation rate pressure systems.
Iran shares oil and gas reservoirs with neighbors, including several oil deposits with Iraq. The Arab state shares 1,400km of border with Iran to the west.
“We want to enter foreign markets as part of the company's overseas plan. We hope we can provide technical services to other countries (especially neighbors), or set up drilling rigs for drilling wells overseas,” Mousavi said.
NIDC has taken some measures in Iraq and also plans to start drilling in Oman and Ukraine, he said, but did not provide details.
Founded in 1979, NIDC is conducting drilling operations for the National Iranian South Oil Company, Petroleum Engineering and Development Company, Iranian Offshore Oil Company and Iranian Central Oil Fields Company.
Besides drilling, it provides over 30% of technical services to the oil industry, namely well logging, cementing and acidizing, drill stem test, well testing, training, development and general services.
NIDC has undertaken drilling work in Yaran, Yadavaran and Darkhoin oil fields in Khuzestan, and the Azar oil field in Ilam Province.
