The National Iranian Drilling Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, has signed two deals with NIOC's Exploration Management Department on providing equipment and services for oil and gas drilling.
The agreements were signed by Sepehr Sepehri, NIDC's managing director, and Seyyed Saleh Hendi, the head of the department, on Monday, NIOC's news portal reported.
As per the first agreement, NIDC is obliged to supply the department with two onshore drilling equipment and provide technical services for drilling eight wells over three years.
The second deal involves NIDC conducting coiled tubing operations on subsea wells in the Persian Gulf for 30 months.
The cooperation comes in line with the Oil Ministry's policy to help domestic firms play an active role in oil and gas development. Sepehri said NIDC welcomes increasing cooperation with domestic private companies to fulfill such a goal.
Hendi said his department's main policy is to modify its contracting models to utilize the potentials of domestic contractors as much as possible.
"We are ready to add more drilling services to the agreement that NIDC can fulfill," he said.
He hoped that the cooperation will lead to logging and drilling more wells.
The bulk of deals concluded between domestic firms in the oil and gas sector follow EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) and EPD (engineering, procurement and drilling) contracts, which help contractors take on the responsibility of the majority of procedures.
According to Sepehri, such cooperation can support the indigenization of equipment used in the sector.
The ministry has taken measures to boost domestic manufacturing of oil equipment to curb capital outflows for imports.
In 2014, a committee was set up by Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh to pursue the production of 10 major categories of equipment for the key oil and gas sector, including turbines, pipes and compressors.
Noting that the drilling equipment are ready for transportation to the fields, Sepehri said his company is ready to supply more drilling equipment upon the department's request.
