TEHRAN – Head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has said the company’s subsidiaries should have a structure that focuses more on business and investment and an export-oriented approach must be followed.

Speaking in a ceremony to introduce the new head of the NIOC’s Exploration Department on Monday, Mohsen Khojasteh Mehr said: “If such a structure does not exist, it should be created, and if this structure is already created, it should be strengthened so that the companies would be able to benefit from the capabilities of their business and investment units.”

As reported, Khojasteh Mehr appointed Mehdi Fakour as the new director of the company’s exploration department, replacing Saleh Hendi.

The official underlined the importance of the exploration department in NIOC activities and noted that since all the data related to the oil industry’s upstream sector is collected at the mentioned department it is of utmost importance to manage this information in the best way possible.

The NIOC head stressed the need for the continuation of exploration activities in the southern, southwestern and central regions of Iran and said: “there are still untapped reserves, both on land and at sea, and we should increase the success rate of our exploration operations with the use of latest technologies and modern equipment.”

In this meeting, Hendi, the former director of NIOC’s Exploration Department, congratulated Fakor for taking the position and wished him success.

He further referred to some of the work carried out during his tenure and said: “With all the measures taken, the exploration goals set for the country’s oil and gas sector in the Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021) have been achieved by more than 150 percent.”

“Seven rigs are currently drilling on exploration sites, four operational seismic projects and four information processing projects are underway, and 11 approved geophysical projects are in the tender stage,” he said.

EF/MA