National Iranian Oil Company - Subsidiary Companies

Subsidiary Companies

See also: Privatization of the petroleum industry in Iran

With appropriate division of tasks and delegation of responsibilities to subsidiaries- affiliates, NIOC has been able to establish acceptable degrees of coordination within its organizational set up. In fact, NIOC's Directors act primarily in policy making and supervision while subsidiaries act as their executive arm in coordinating an array of operations such as exploration, drilling, production and delivery of crude oil and natural gas, for export and domestic consumption.

The NIOC's subsidiaries are as follows:

NIOC subsidiaries

Company Name	Activities
Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC)	in charge of offshore oil fields in the Persian Gulf offshore oil and gas fields with the exception of South Pars. It focuses mainly on production platforms, ancillary facilities, and installations.
Central Iranian Oil Fields Company	supervises all upstream activities in the central oil and gas regions of the country, i.e. everything, excluding the oil-rich southern Khuzestan province, Caspian and offshore.
National Iranian Gas Export Co. (NIGEC)	in charge of gas exports for the National Iranian Gas Company. Until May 2010, NIGEC was under the control of the NIOC, but the Petroleum Ministry transferred NIGEC, incorporating it under NIGC in an attempt to broaden responsibility for new natural gas projects. See also: Persian pipeline and Peace pipeline.
Iran LNG Company	a subsidiary of National Iranian Gas Export Co. (NIGEC)
National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC)	in charge of onshore oilfields in southern Iran. Focuses on onshore upstream activity in the province of Khuzestan. As Khuzestan is the main oil and gas-producing province, this entity is among the most significant in the NIOC family.
National Iranian Central Oil Company	supervises all upstream activities in the central oil and gas regions of the country, i.e. everything, excluding the oil-rich southern Khuzestan province, Caspian and offshore.
Khazar Oil Exploration and Production Compan	in charge of Iran's Caspian Sea sector (onshore and offshore)
Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC)	is the most important NIOC offshoot company. The responsibility for all buy-back projects under operation, study or negotiation has been given to PEDEC. This company enjoys full authority to manage the projects. Further information: Foreign Direct Investment in Iran
Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC)	National Iranian Gas Company does not play a role in awarding upstream gas projects; that task remains in the hands of the National Iranian Oil Company. Pars Oil and Gas Co. is in charge of the offshore North and South Pars gas fields and responsible for awarding the contracts for the different phases. Since 2010, it has been raising capital on the domestic and international markets in order to finance its projects.
Pars Special Economic Energy Zone Co.	handles and organizes all activities in the Pars Special Economic-Energy Zone, located near the South Pars gas field (a subsidiary of Pars Oil & Gas Co.)
National Iranian Oil Terminals Company	has four transport hubs including facilities on the three islands of Kharg, Lavan and Sirri consisting of 17 jetties capable of berthing tankers of all sizes to lift and export its crude oil that load more than 2,000 oil tankers per year. 2,000 of them dock in Bandar Abbas Port, 1,000 in Khark Island. Iran earned nearly $2 billion in 2009 from bunkering ships in the Persian Gulf (25% market share). Projected bunkering sites by 2015: Bandar Abbas (two sites), Kish, Qeshm, Bushehr, Mahshahr, Assalouyeh, Khark and Chabahar. Fujairah bunkering hub, UAE is Iran's main competitor in the Persian Gulf. The country's terminal storage capacity should soar to 100 million barrels by 2015 from the current 24 million barrels.
National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC)	in charge of all offshore and onshore drilling activities. NIDC provides more than 90 percent of drilling services needed by the oil companies inside the country. In 2011, NIDC, drilled or completed 192 oil and gas wells, drilled 454 thousand meters of wells and provided more than 8 thousand expert or technical services to customers. As at 2012, 123 drilling rigs are in operation in Iran’s offshore and onshore.
Ahwaz Pipe Mills Company	manufacturing oil and gas pipes and has a capacity of up to 420,000 tons per year. It operates three plants.
Iranian Fuel Conservation Organization	regimenting the fuel consumption in different sectors through review and survey of the current trend of consumption and executing conservation measures nationwide. See also: 2007 Gasoline Rationing Plan in Iran
National Iranian Tanker Company	controls the second largest fleet of tankers in OPEC.
Exploration Service Company (ESC)	responsible for providing operational services in all facets of exploration and production activities within NIOC onshore regions.
Kala Naft (London) Ltd.	in charge of carrying out the procurement needs of the NIOC that cannot be met domestically. However, NIOC organizations can in theory also purchase directly from suppliers.
Kala Naft (Canada) Ltd.	in charge of carrying out the procurement needs of the NIOC that cannot be met domestically
Naftiran Intertrade Co. (NICO) (Switzerland)	handles trading & swaps operations on behalf of NIOC. Iran has swap arrangements with Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, under which it ships crude from the Central Asian producers to its Caspian ports. In exchange Iran delivers the equivalent barrels of crude on behalf of the three Central Asian producers to their costumers in the Persian Gulf. In October 2010, Iran asked for the terms of the contract to be re-negotiated because it claims it has lost money because of it. On July 2, 2011, NIOC resumed oil swaps with Caspian states. NaftIran also buys the vast majority of Iran's gasoline imports. Naftiran is a key player in Iran's energy sector.
Petropars	General contractor for the oil & gas industry (a subsidiary of Naftiran Intertrade Co.)
Petroiran Development Company (aka PetroIran or PEDCO)	General offshore contractor (a subsidiary of Naftiran Intertrade Co.). PetroIran was initially formed to be the Iranian partner of foreign contractors with a 10% share in each buy-back contract.
Iranian Oil Company (UK)	in charge of Rhum gasfield (a subsidiary of Naftiran Intertrade Co.)
Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company (IOEC)	First Iranian general contractor to the oil and gas industries. Joint venture with IDRO
Arvandan Oil & Gas Company (AOGC)	responsible for the development of the Arvandan oil & gas fields. AOGC was established in 2004 working as the main operator in oil and gas production from Azadegan, Yadavaran, Darquain, Jufeyr, Moshtagh, Khorramshahr, Arvand, Susangerd, Band-e-Karkheh, Omid and other fields which are located in west of Karun River.
Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI)	NIOC will implement 69 research projects between 2010 and 2015 which include topics as enhancing recovery rate, modeling, control and management of reservoirs, production and exploitation, exploration, promotion and technology in drilling operations, establishment of an integrated data bank, industrial protection and environment, optimizing energy consumption, materials and equipments manufacturing, strategic and infrastructure studies, productivity and specialized maintenance. See also: Science and technology in Iran.