17 Foreign Firms in Iran’s Biggest Drilling Bid
The Managing Director of the North Drilling Company (NDC), Hedayatollah Khademi, told of holding of the biggest bid for drilling services of oil and gas industry with the presence of more than 17 European and Asian companies.
He added “This oil bid will be held in early-March 2010 in 5 main groups in Tehran… companies taking part in the bid are from Germany, France, Norway, China, India, the UAE, Singapore, and Malaysia… the drilling bid will take place in Tehran and we predict the winners will be identified by early 1389 (March 2010-2011).
“The aim of holding this bid is to create joint ventures with the foreign companies to provide different services in the oil and gas fields… currently in the oil and gas drilling industry, 15 service and specialized side-services exists and with the creation of these joint ventures, the possibility for providing these services in Iran’s oil projects and third countries become possible.”
Khademi said that in each of these joint ventures, 50% of the shares would belong to NDC and added “In this joint venture, the foreign party is to provide the machinery and the equipments required for drilling side-services… NDC in turn will handle the national and international marketing, management of the drilling projects and provision of the oil and gas side-services.”
He further added that NDC, with drilling of a total of 24 offshore wells in Turkmenistan, possesses good experience for implementation of oil and gas drilling projects in the region and said “Since there exists a good market for drilling of oil and gas wells in Iran and in the neighboring countries, the foreign companies have announced their readiness for implementation of joint drilling projects.”
He said that at present services such as electric logging, horizontal, slant, diagonal and direction drilling, travelling tubes and cementation are some of the most important oil and gas well drilling services and added “Currently management of these services exists in the Iranian oil industry.”
Khademi further added "NDC manages 9 onshore rigs, one maritime check-up equipment, and the semi-submersible Iran-Alborz rig... this international bid is estimated at US$200 million. - Mehr