TEHRAN - The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Oil Industry Equipment Manufacturers Association Ehsan Saghafi, says Iran has exported €710 million worth of oil industry equipment over the last two and a half years.

Speaking in a press conference he said that the figure was just 10 percent of the association's capacity for manufacturing and expressed hope that manufacturers will be able to deploy 100 percent of their exporting potential over the next two years. 

“Over the last 2.5 years, we have been able to establish closer relations with the government which has been helpful in view of solving the private sector problems but this level of interaction has not met our expectations,” Saghafi said.  

According to him, the association has started marketing abroad and has achieved some success even though it is faced with some challenges in terms of providing its foreign exchange needs.

We are at the beginning of the road leading to export equipment and we need governmental support, he concluded.

Iran’s deputy oil minister said in late March that the country has succeeded in manufacturing 80 percent of the oil industry’s needed parts and equipment domestically despite being under sanctions.

The Iranian Oil Ministry has focused on taking advantage of the expertise and technical know-how of knowledge-based companies, Jalil Salari said, emphasizing that more than 80 percent of the oil equipment is manufactured in the country.

Speaking in a meeting held in Abadan on reviewing the quality plans of oil byproducts, he said that the oil ministry took effective steps in the past two years for the domestic production of oil parts and equipment.

One of these measures is related to the launch of extraterritorial refining plans overseas and the export of technical and engineering services, he stated.

So far, three- to four technical know-hows have fully been localized in refining companies in the field of producing catalysts, compressor manufacturing, and streamlining the quality of fuel oil, the chief executive of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) said.

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