Issues and problems discussed by private producers and manufacturers during the Third National Congress on Oil Industry Contracting System will be addressed by a special committee and necessary measures will be taken, said deputy oil minister for engineering affairs, IRNA reported.
Proposal for establishing an oil industry syndicate, which ought to be set up by the private sector, was an achievement of the congress, Seyed Emad Hosseini said, adding: "As a government organization, the oil ministry faced restrictions in establishing such a body."
The syndicate will have oversight of the oil industry with an administrative and consultancy role. Currently, the industry is only accountable to the oil ministry, the scope of which is limited on account of being governmental. "The absence of such an association is quite evident," Hosseini said.
During the past year the norm was to respond to problems of the private sector issuing reports on subjects such as recommendations on contractual dispute resolutions, currency and fuel pricing, and support for domestic production.
The Third Congress on Oil Industry Contracting System was held at the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) attended by Hosseini and Roknod’din Javadi, managing director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) on October 14. The emphasis of the meeting was to strengthen the role of private sector in the oil industry. Recognizing challenges and introducing means to expand and promote a contracting system in line with the full presence of the private sector in oil industry projects, support for manufacturing and provision of machinery and equipment to strengthen the domestic private sector, new means to provide financial resources and absorb investments in the oil industry, transparency of upstream oil contracts, and project management structures were the main themes of the congress.
