An official with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said the company was planning to sign ten production maintenance and enhancement contracts with domestic firms within the next two months.

Reza Dehghan, deputy CEO of NIOC for development and engineering affairs, said 33 working packages for production enhancement and maintenance projects valued at a total of $6.2 billion were defined by NIOC which would increase Iran"s crude oil production capacity by 280,000 b/d and would be developed by domestic developers.

The contracts entail domestic manufacturing of 84 industrial items by Iranian companies, he added.

The official further added that so far 10 such contracts had been signed and 10 others were being prepared to be signed within the next two months. These contracts are expected to increase Iran"s oil production capacity by 70,000 b/d.