TEHRAN – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, in a meeting with the board members of the Association of Petroleum Industry Engineering and Construction Companies (APEC) discussed the challenges that the private companies and contractors active in the fields of oil, gas, and petrochemicals are currently facing.

As reported by Shana, during the meeting, held on Tuesday, the APEC board members presented a report on the problems that oil and gas companies are facing due to the coronavirus outbreak, as well as a summary of the results of their joint meetings with the Budget Planning Organization (BPO) in this regard.

For his part, Zanganeh delivered a speech in the meeting and stated that the Oil Ministry supports the empowerment and development of the private sector as one of its major policies, adding: "Oil Ministry welcomes the presence of private sector companies that are willing to define and implement major projects in the industry."

He further suggested that the association implements a program for ranking the companies active in this field on a professional and experience basis outside the government system and specified: “the results of this work can also be used in government departments.”

Zanganeh stressed the need to expand public ownership and privatization of the economy in order to implement the policies of the resistance economy, stating that oil and gas engineering, consulting, and contracting companies have shown a lot of resilience to survive in these difficult conditions.

“The Oil Ministry has a duty to use the capacities of these companies, as much as possible, in defining new projects and to create a platform for the prosperity of their activities; and this issue is seriously on the agenda,” the minister added.

Established in 2000, Iran’s Association of Petroleum Industry Engineering and Construction Companies currently consists of 285 members that are active in major oil, gas, and petrochemical projects across the country.

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Photo: Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh (1st R)