State-owned enterprise | |
Industry | Oil and gas |
Founded | 1948 |
Headquarters | Tehran, Iran |
Area served
|
Worldwide |
Key people
|
Bijan Namdar Zangeneh (Chairman) Ali Kardor (CEO) |
Products | Oil, natural gas and petrochemicals |
Revenue | US$110 billion (2012) |
Total assets | US$200 billion (2012) |
Owner | Iranian government (100%) |
Number of employees
|
41,000 (2011) |
Subsidiaries |
NISOC IOOC ICOFC NIDC NICO NITCO |
Website | en |
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC; Persian: شرکت ملّی نفت ایران Sherkat-e Melli-ye Naft-e Īrān), a government-owned corporation under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran, is an oil and natural gas producer and distributor headquartered in Tehran. It was established in 1948. 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, extraction, transportation and exportation of crude oil, as well as exploration, extraction and sales of natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG). the NIOC exports its surplus production according to commercial considerations in the framework of the quotas determined by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and at the prices prevalent in the international markets. in early 2005 NIOC's Recoverable liquid hydrocarbon reserves 136.99 billion barrels (21.780 km3) (10% of world's total) and Recoverable gas reserves 28.17×1012 m3 (15% of world's total). Current NIOC production capacities include over 4 million barrels (640×10 3 m3) of crude oil and in excess of 500 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. Iran's overall export crude oil was valued at US$85 billion in 2010.
In May 1901, William Knox D'Arcy was granted a concession by the Shah of Iran to search for oil, which he discovered in May 1908. This was the first commercially significant find in the Middle East. In 1923, Burmah employed future Prime Minister, Winston Churchill as a paid consultant; to lobby the British government to allow the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) to have exclusive rights to Persian oil resources, which were successfully granted.