SHANA - A senior Iranian oil official said the country has so far signed 55 contracts with domestic developers for manufacturing industrial parts and items with a total value of �1.5 billion.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Habibollah Bitaraf said the deals were signed in line with implementation of an initiative to indigenize manufacturing of 10 groups of widely-used oil industry parts and items.

He said tenders have so far been mounted for purchasing the items produced by domestic suppliers in this regard.

The qualities of the bidders in the tenders are assessed by Sharif University of Technology and Tehran University.

The items include turbines, drilling pipes, linings, casings, different kinds of pipes, bits, wellhead equipment, etc.