[caption id="attachment_111583" align="alignright" width="177"] managing-director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)[/caption]

TEHRAN Feb 20(Shana)--National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has banned its subsidiaries from buying or hiring foreign drilling rigs and commodities.

The ban was instructed in a letter by Rokneddin Javadi, managing-director of NIOC, to National Iranian South Oil Company, Iranian Central Oil Fields Company, Petroleum Engineering and Development Company, Iranian Offshore Oil Company, Arvandan Oil and Gas Company, Pars Oil and Gas Company and National Iranian Drilling Company.

“As it has already been announced… it is necessary to make sure that as long as there is domestically manufactured offshore and onshore drilling rigs available in the country, it would be prohibited to purchase  or rent foreign rigs,” wrote Javadi.

By SHANA