There are great opportunities for cooperation between Iran and Azerbaijan in oil industry maintenance that will be in the interest of both the countries if tapped, deputy oil minister in engineering affairs believes.
Alireza Asl-Arabi told Trend News Agency that Azerbaijan will reap a lot of benefits if it uses Iranian expertise for maintaining its oil facilities.
“Both in small daily maintenance tasks and periodical repair and maintenance projects, Azerbaijan has been mostly using the services of European and American companies, which entails spending large sums of money due to geographical distance, the use of Western currencies, and other factors,” he noted.
BP has plans for two maintenance programs on Azerbaijani-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oilfields in 2016.
BP had two sets of planned maintenance for Azerbaijan last year as well - in May and November.
“This is while there are 30 to 35 large companies for maintenance services in Iran. The Iranian oil industry enjoys a history of 110 years. There are many veteran experts who can act as easy-to-access elite leaders and there is also the young cheap workforce that can be mobilized swiftly,” the official went on to say.
Asl-Arabi said there is also benefit in cooperation for Iranian companies.
“This cooperation could act as a starting point for Iranian companies to enter international markets and since Azerbaijani companies are mostly using Western advisors the Iranian companies could get a chance to add to their expertise and prestige,” he stated.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the official told Trend News Agency that he would also like to see Azerbaijani oil companies offer services to Iran.
“It has always been the other way, that is, Iran has been offering engineering services to Azerbaijan,” he said, adding, “I would love to see Azerbaijani companies coming to Iran.”