“In the past platforms were sent to other countries for repairs, but now it is done in Iran. Domestic maintenance of the equipment has helped save $6 million for each rig,” Majid Owji was quoted as saying by Tasnim News Agency.
This was possible with the help of Iranian engineers, he said, adding that domestic knowledge-based companies now manufacture and repair equipment used in offshore drilling rigs.
There are tens of drilling rigs in the oil and gas fields off the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman run by the Iranian National Iranian Oil Company.
Iranian companies have built and installed almost all offshore platforms of the South Pars gas field south of Iran.
Sina Energy Development Company is an Iranian company in the oil, gas and related industries. Founded in 2007, it is involved in feasibility studies, project assessment, contract development, designing, planning and construction of oil and gas drilling rigs (onshore, offshore), plants (refineries and petrochemicals), pipeline and wellhead facilities among others.
Despite the coronavirus outbreak, work at oil and gas fields are ongoing in compliance with safety and healthcare procedures.
The National Iranian Drilling Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, collaborates with 230 local firms to indigenize drilling equipment.
NIDC accounts for 70% of the domestic drilling market share. It procures domestic goods and services and promotes knowledge-based companies.
The company has drilled 4,489 onshore and offshore oil and gas wells in four decades-- 4,092 wells were drilled on land and 397 in deep waters.
It drilled and repaired 114 onshore and offshore oil and gas wells in 2019. With 75 onshore and offshore drilling rigs, as well as equipment and facilities for integrated technical and engineering services, the company plays a major role in drilling, exploration as well as appraisal and development.
In February, the company launched Fath 72, a new local drilling rig, which can dig up to 20,000 feet (6,000 meters).
It is 46 meters tall and its static load-carrying capacity is 500,000 kilograms. It is equipped with three pumps and a 500-ton top drive, a mechanical device that provides clockwise torque to the drill string to drill a borehole.
The Tehran-based Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research completed the project in four years.
ACECR is a public non-governmental higher education institution established in 1980. It is involved in innovative research and development projects in scientific and tech areas plus real-world applications.
Fath 72 is the second rig manufactured by ACECR. The first, Fath 71, was delivered to NIDC in 2018 and the third, Fath 73, will be commissioned in 2021.
NIDC has said it indigenized over 5,000 drilling parts in collaboration with domestic manufactures and engineers in the past two decades.
Indigenized equipment, accounting for almost 80% of the industry's needs, include drilling mud pumps, blowout preventers, traction motors, draw-works, drilling fluid recycling systems, mission centrifugal pumps, top drives and drilling rig slow circulation rate pressure systems.