Domestic Manufacturing Guarantees Petroleum Industry Future
A policy adopted by Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh for the domestic manufacturing of "ten groups of commodities" with a view to reducing the petroleum industry's dependence on foreign-made equipment motivated Iranian companies to upgrade their manufacturing potential.
Today, the main four subsidiaries of the Petroleum Ministry are identifying the technological needs of the petroleum industry in addition to facilitating marketing of technology.
To learn more about the domestic manufacturing of commodities, Iran Petroleum has interviewed RaminQalamborDezfuli, director of manufacturing logistics and commodity supply of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
When was the manufacturing of 10 groups of commodities defined as a Petroleum Ministry policy and what has been done so far to that effect?
The history of 10 projects dates back to March 2014 when Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] ordered support for domestic manufacturing and empowering domestic manufacturers. Minister Zangeneh immediately put the Supreme Leader's instruction high on the Petroleum Ministry agenda and related work started in May that year. Then the 10 shortlisted projects were announced by the Minister of Petroleum based on views of advisors and advice of the managing directors of the four main subsidiaries of Petroleum Ministry in light of priorities and needs of petroleum industry. The then Kala Naft Co. was assigned the mission to conduct feasibility study on the project. We started our work at Kala Naft in late May. For each project, a manager and some specialized working committees were selected. The working committees were all petroleum industry experts coming from main companies and their offshoots. Finally, ten projects were assessed and put to feasibility study. We submitted the first report to Mr. Zangeneh in September 2014. MinisterZangeneh spent three and half hours to listen to our reports. We could only detail five projects. In the end, the minister said: "What you've done is beyond my imagination and you inspired me with hope that this project is possible even though only some of them may be implemented". That was a relaxing phrase from Mr.Zangeneh after three months of unabated activity. After that, a steering committee was established based on Mr. Zangeneh’s instruction. Chaired by the then deputy minister of petroleum for research and technology Mohammad Reza Moqaddam, the committee was granted special authority by the then CEO of NIOC RokneddinJavadi. For instance, decisions made by this working committee were as authoritative as the decisions of NIOC Board of Directors and five NIOC Board members sat at the steering committee.