Ahvaz, Khuzestan Prov. - Managing Director of National Iranian Drilling Company Heidar Bahmani said on Sunday that beyond 20,000 drilling equipment will be manufactured domestically by the end of the current Iranian year of 1391.
Bahmani said that in the year of National Production, Support for Iranian Labor and Asset, the company has planned to design and manufacture drilling equipment by the NIDC technicians, Iranian scientific and research centers as well as domestic manufacturers.
He said using domestic expertise has been among priorities of the NIDC.
He added that NIDC has been working on indigenizing manufacture of essential drilling equipment and parts.
The NIDC has drilled 1,202 oil and gas wells since August 2005.
The drilling operations, which were amounted to 2,724,000 meters in total, were carried out both on offshore and onshore fields.
Currently 123 drilling rigs are in operation at Iranian offshore and onshore oilfields.
A total of 98 rigs are in operation at onshore fields, 24 at offshore fields and a single rig is in operation in the Caspian Sea.
NIDC has planning to increase the number of its drilling rigs operating in its onshore and offshore oilfields by 36 units to reach 134 units by March 2014.
The company has invested over $1 billion to expand its drilling facilities and over $200 million to provide spare parts.
NIDC accounts for 90 percent of drilling operations at oil and gas fields.
© IRNA 2012
