Iranian Oil Ministry’s news service Shana said on Saturday that the deal signed with MAPNA Group is meant to improve the recovery rate and increase production at Parsi and Paranj oilfields, located in the province of Khuzestan and near the border with Iraq.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and senior provisional officials oversaw the signing of the contract in Tehran between CEOs of Mapna and the National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC), which operates the two oilfields.

The official IRNA news agency cited NISOC chief Ahmad Mohammadi as saying that MAPNA would invest nearly $1.4 billion in the project for the development of Parsi and Paranj, two reserves that hold around 12 billion barrels of oil together.

Mohammadi said the contractor is expected to increase production at the two fields from the current 52,000 bpd per day to 85,000 bpd at the end of the 10-year development project.

That would mean an increased income of around $1.65 million a day for Iran’s Oil Ministry, said the report by Shana, adding that the project would create many jobs for local people while using the expertise of various Iranian firms that have become more active in the oil and gas sector at a time the country faces the American sanctions.

Mapna and NISOC signed a draft agreement for the development of Parsi and Paranj oilfields in August. MAPNA is expected to drill 29 wells in the fields and carry out repair works at eight others. Its CEO Abbas Aliabadi said on Saturday that the company has already started drilling a well at Parsi.

The National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC) has successfully manufactured over 1,000 items used in the petroleum industry over the course of the past year, according to its CEO Ahmad Mohammadi who added that self-reliance and self-confidence have been the rewards of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 for the oil industry.

Addressing a ceremony to celebrate the 41st anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution last Saturday, Mohammadi said, undoubtedly, independence, self-belief, and reliance on domestic capabilities should be regarded as one of the most important achievements of the Islamic Revolution for the country.

The NISOC accounts for over 80 percent of Iran’s crude oil output.

Addressing the same ceremony, the company’s production manager Saeid Kuti said the localization and optimal use of demulsifiers by the NISOC have resulted in cost savings of the company by over IRR 270 billion.

“More than 80% of the chemicals used by the company are demulsifiers that are used in desalination plants to separate water and salt from crude oil, which is very strategic for NISOC,” he added.

Kuti noted, “Localization of this strategic item is being performed in a variety of ways, including localization of demulsifiers using nano compounds to increase their efficiency, as well as preparation of environmentally friendly demulsifiers in collaboration with research and scientific centers.”

Kuti said, previously, all the demulsifiers used in NISOC had to be imported which incurred dependence and high costs.

In October, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, in a visit to a manufacturing site of the Oil Turbo Compressor Company (OTC) in Tehran lauded the country’s self-sufficiency in producing equipment and machinery needed in the oil and gas industry, highlighting that the OTC has so far outputted 200 sets of 25-megawatt turbines.

“More than 200 set of 25-megawatt turbines and compressors have been supplied by the OTC across the country, all of them manufactured inside (Iran) and relying on the domestic knowledge,” said Namdar Zanganeh, on the sidelines of his visit to an OTC production site in Tehran, adding that the equipment made by the OTC is currently used across Iran’s oil and gas industry and on a wide scale.

He added that key equipment used in oil and gas fields is currently manufactured inside the country without any direct support of the industrial giants of the world.

The minister said that the OTC, once a partner with German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG, had been awarded around €3.6 billion worth of contracts on manufacturing and maintenance of devices used in the oil and gas industry.

He said the company had also made an investment of around €200 million to expand its services in the field.

Namdar Zanganeh admitted the fact that Siemens, once responsible for the bulk of the work on turbines and compressors in Iran’s oil and gas industry, had fulfilled its commitments on technology transfer to its Iranian partner before it stopped doing business in Iran under the pressure of the sanctions.

“One should be fair, Siemens technology transfer was perfect as it has provided the staff of this company (OTC) with proper training,” he said while insisting that Siemens withdrawal from Iran in 2010 triggered the process for indigenization of key oilfield equipment in the country.

Namdar Zanganeh said Siemens has certified the compressors and turbines manufactured by the OTC, allowing Iran to use the equipment in the oil and gas industry with more confidence.

In July, Namdar Zanganeh announced that the country successfully completed installing a super-size drilling rig at South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, the largest in the world, without any foreign company involved after Tehran made its industries self-sufficient to defy the US unilateral sanctions.

He announced that the 2,400-ton platform, dubbed SPD-14B, had been mounted earlier in the day by Iranian crew and experts in Persian Gulf waters off the Southern Iranian coast.

Iran has already installed 14A and 14C platform as part of the development plan at South Pars phase 14.

Namdar Zanganeh said eight similar drilling rigs made by Iranian companies would be installed in other projects until the end of the current Iranian calendar year in March, bringing Iran’s output from its offshore gas fields to 27 billion cubic feet (nearly 800 million cubic meters) per day.

Iran has sought to increase its daily production in oil and gas fields despite sanctions imposed by the United States which restricts Tehran’s ability for export.

Zanganeh had said earlier this year that Iran’s gas production at South Pars had already exceeded 21.5 billion feet (610 million cubic meters) per day, adding that Iran’s share of daily production at the field had dwarfed that of Qatar.

He also said last week that Tehran was negotiating with China to sort out the country’s role in South Pars phase 11, a project where the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has been accused of foot-dragging.

The CNPC has held an 80 percent stake in the project since France’s Total withdrew last summer under US pressure.

Back in mid-December 2018, Head of Exploration at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Seyed Saleh Hendi said US’ unilateral sanctions against Tehran have led Iran to self-sufficiency in producing equipment for oil and gas production.

In 2014, Managing Director of the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) Ali Akbar Safayee announced that the country has attained self-sufficiency in the construction of offshore oil platforms despite the sanctions imposed by the West.