Russia's Gas Giant Turns to Iran for Equipment

Gazprom has been negotiating with some Iranian companies to buy oil and gas equipment, Reza Padidar, head of the Society of Iranian Petroleum Industries Equipment Manufacturers (SIPIEM), told TASS. 

“We have held many meetings with Gazprom and its subsidiaries in the past year. They are interested in Iranian equipment,” Mr. Padidar said at a conference in Tehran on Iran’s new model of oil contracts.

He added that Gazprom is interested, first of all, in buying pressure and temperature control valves on pipelines as well as automatic control systems. 

The West’s sanctions against Russia ban the sale of complicated equipment for the development of hard-to-reach fields. Russian authorities and oil and gas companies have been looking for the ways to substitute the equipment and technologies that are subject to the sanctions.

Sanctions against Iran were introduced because of its nuclear program in the mid-1990s. The country has actively developed manufacturing of oil and gas equipment domestically. At present, about 50 Iranian companies have been working in this area. 

Iran plans to achieve world-wide recognition as the manufacturer of oil and gas equipment over the course of five years, Mr. Padidar said.