Who We Are?
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC; Persian: شرکت ملّی نفت ایران, romanized: Sherkat-e Melli-ye Naft-e Īrān) is a government-owned national oil and natural gas producer and distributor under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran. NIOC was established in 1948 and restructured under The Consortium Agreement of 1954. NIOC ranks as the world's second largest oil company, after Saudi Arabia's state-owned Aramco.
The NIOC is exclusively responsible for the exploration, drilling, production, distribution and export of crude oil, as well as exploration, extraction and sales of natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG). NIOC exports its surplus production according to commercial considerations determined by the OPEC and at the prices prevalent in the international markets. In early 2015 NIOC's recoverable liquid hydrocarbon reserves was 156.53 billion barrels (24.886 km3) (10% of world's total) and recoverable gas reserves were 33.79×1012 m3 (15% of world's total). As at 2012, the NIOC production capacity included over 4 million barrels (640×103 m3) of crude oil and in excess of 750 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.
Five countries –Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates– totally possess 63 percent of oil reserves and 40 percent of natural gas reserves of the world. Persian Gulf as a strategic center of oil production plays a vital role in Islamic Republic of Iran's oil export. Due to huge reserves of hydrocarbon, shared fields, border among the Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the passage for a big part of the world's energy, it shall be the major source of reliable oil supply, and requires close tie of the Islamic countries of the region with each other.
The motto of National Iranian Oil Company (IOOC) as "Cooperation instead of Competition," is a nobel idea that guarantees the national interests of the countries of the region. Specially those countries with shared oil and gas fields with Iran.
The first contract signed for oil exploration and production from the Persian Gulf seabed was a partnership contract between National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and AGIP, an Italian company in 1951. The contract concluded to development and production of Bahregansar Oilfield which effectively was accomplished 1961 and production of this oilfield began by a joint venture Iranian Italian company, SIRIP.
Following exploration of oil in this oilfield, other oil companies such as American AMOCO in Kharg Island, American Companies of ARCO, MURPHY, UNION and SUN, also Italian AGIP, American Philips Co., Indian Oil and Gas Commission in Lavan Island, and French venture
ELF in Sirri Island each carried out oil activities by establishing joint venture companies with NIOC, under the names of IPAC (Kharg), LAPCO and IMINOCO (Lavan) and SOFIRAN (Sirri).
After the Iranian Revolution, Majles shoraye Islami (Parliament) passed a law on 09/12/1980 through which all the partnership contracts between Islamic Republic of Iran and other companies were cancelled and one year after, combination of these companies, on 20/09/1980 National Iranian Oil Company (IOOC) was established to operate the whole Iranian oil and gas fields in the Persian Gulf.
The Imposed war noticeable damages on offshore and onshore establishments to stop the production, challenged the company to achieve its grand goal, oil production though passing through this goal demands devotion, sacrifice and high skill of all the staff.
The company's performance record, despite all ups and downs, is an evidence of this claim