TEHRAN - National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) has allocated 5.2 trillion rials (about $123.8 million) for the renovation and upgrading of its drilling rigs and equipment in the company’s operational, technical, specialized, and logistical departments.

According to the NIDC’s Director of Renovation and Upgrading Shahram Shamipour, the renovation and upgrading operations are aimed at improving the performance of these rigs which are active in the country’s oil and gas field development projects, Shana reported.

Shamipour noted that the equipment going through renovation operations include fluid pumps, draw-works machinery, charting tools, pumps for cementing and acidizing trucks, tow trucks, cranes, piping machines, generators, hydrogen sulfide gas treatment systems, acid-coated storage tanks, and cement transport bunkers. 

In this due, the company is going to sign deals with domestic companies for the renovation of more than 220 pieces of equipment related to drilling rigs, technical services, transportation, special services, tools in circulation, and safety, health, and environment, according to Shamipour.

The official noted that of the allocated figure, so far, 1.3 trillion rials (about $30.95 million) has been spent which has led to the signing of eight deals with domestic companies.

Considering the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)’s new strategies for strengthening the presence of domestic companies in the development of the country’s oil fields, NIDC, as a major subsidiary of the company, has been supporting such companies by lending them drilling rigs and other necessary equipment.

According to Babak Zanganeh, director of consolidated planning at NIDC, the company dug and completed the digging operation of 17 oil and gas wells during the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21– May 21), an official with the company said.

NIDC owns 70 light, heavy and super-heavy drilling rigs, including 67 onshore drilling rigs and three offshore rigs, Zanganeh said.

"Currently, 25 drilling rigs of the company are being relocated in the onshore operational areas of the country”, he added.

NIDC managed to carry out 10,182 meters of horizontal and directional drilling in 43 oil and gas wells across the country during the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), according to the Head of NIDC’s Special Operations Department Ali Daqayeqi.

Some 654 meters of core extraction drilling was also conducted in the mentioned period which was a huge achievement for assessing the condition of the country’s oil and gas reserves.

EF/MA