Page 39 - Impiantistica Industriale - Novembre-Dicembre 2016

The Iranian oil industry

inclination to cooperate

with Italy’s industry

Interview with Amir-Hossein Zamani-Nia,
Deputy of Oil Minister, International Affairs

cludes producing 526 main equipment and 14,974
Amir-Hossein Zamani-Nia is Deputy Petroleum Minister for International small devices and equipment, according to our
and Commerce Affairs in Iran, since December 2014. Previously, from 2001- statics. So Italian suppliers and contractors can be
2005 and later from 2013 to 2015, he had served as senior member of the involved in Iran’s upstream and downstream petro-
Iranian nuclear negotiations team, which finally resulted in an agreement with leum projects and help Iran’s industry to meet its
5+1 countries. goals and facilitate technology transfer to Iranian
Believed to be one of the best references to analyze Iran’s economic oppor- companies, in all its aspects from basic enginee-
tunities in Iran after the Agreement. ring to commercialization and marketing and be
Earlier, he was the head of the International Relations Studies department in active in Iran’s market and other countries in the
the Center for Strategic Research, the Director General for political and inter- region.
national affairs in Iran’s Foreign Ministry”, and Iran’s Ambassador in Malaysia. Besides that, Italian contractors can be involved
He also had served as the Senior Expert in Iran’s office in the United Nations. actively in exploring and developing new oil and
gas fields in Iran under upstream contracts. Now,
50 oil fields are ready to be developed.
After the lifting of the sanctions and the return As a summary, Iran’s oil industry needs to fund-
of foreign contractors in the country, which raise 200 billion dollars and this provides us with
are your expectations about the role of Italian good opportunities for cooperation.
industry (contractors and manufactures) in
the new “era”? How do you see the prospects for collabora-
The Iranian Petroleum Minister has recently ca- tion from the Iranian perspective?
tegorized and planned to produce 10 groups of According to invaluable and long standing coope-
strategic equipment and commodities including ration between Italian industrial companies in Iran’s
different types of main and small equipment used oil industry, the prospect of collaboration between
in upstream and downstream areas in oil, gas and Iran and Italy is very constructive, bright and ho-
petrochemical industries. It helps Iran to meet its peful.
internal demands and domestic needs and also Iran’s oil industry has a considerable inclination to
to export its productions to other countries in the cooperate with Italy’s industry and we hope to see
region as well. Therefore, such a trend in Italian companies also, especial-
it is a really considerable ly in investing, technology transfer, manufacturing
opportunity for Italian equipment and common presence in Iran and the
suppliers to cooperate region’s market
and join with Iranian sup-
pliers who have technical In your view, what would be the best way to
experience and potential start and to proceed?
abilities to produce indu- The best way to start, proceed, continue and de-
strial equipment applying velop the relations is to remove the obstacles oc-
new technologies and curred in sanctions era. Banks, investing organi-
benefit from this valuable zations, universities and research institutions in oil,
market. This program in- gas and petrochemical area can play an important

Impiantistica Italiana - Novembre-Dicembre 2016 37