TEHRAN - National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) has managed to indigenize the knowledge for manufacturing 610 drilling equipment items in collaboration with domestic manufacturers and engineers over the past two years, an official with the company said.

Mohammad-Ali Beygzadeh, the director of research, technology and construction engineering at NIDC, said by localizing these items, more than 1.586 trillion rials (about $3.172 million) has been saved for the company.

According to the official, the mentioned items were manufactured by 160 domestic companies including 85 knowledge-based firms.

NIDC has also signed 90 deals with the country’s universities and research centers for conducting research studies related to the drilling industry, he noted.

Earlier this year, Masoud Afshar, the deputy head of NIDC for drilling operations, announced that the company dug and completed the digging operations of 52 oil and gas wells in the first seven months of the current Iranian year (March 20 -October 21).

According to Afshar, the drilled wells consisted of 12 development, and 40 workover ones, IRNA reported.

As reported, 39 of the drilled wells were in the operational zone of the National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC), six wells were drilled in the fields under the supervision of the Iranian Central Oil Fields Company (ICOFC), two wells were dug by Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC), three in the fields under the operation of Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), and two wells were dug in fields developed by private contractors.

Since the beginning of this year, the drilling area of the wells has reached 65,806 meters, he said and added that the figure has increased by 18,342 meters compared to the previous year’s same period.

NIDC owns 73 light, heavy, and super-heavy drilling rigs, of which currently 10 are in operation in various areas.

EF/MA