The National Iranian Oil Company is a state owned producer and distributor of oil and natural gas. Established in 1948, the enterprise is headquartered in Tehran and comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran.
Apart from the exploration and extraction of crude oil, natural gas and liquified petroleum gas, the company also handles the transportation and exportation of its oil and gas products. NIOC is also responsible for signing long term buy-back contracts with other companies of the world which facilitates its exportation via the National Iranian Gas Export Company.
The company employed 41,000 people as of 2011 and registered a revenue of $110 billion in 2012. It is currently chaired by Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and holds 50 percent of Britain’s offshore gas fields in the North Sea.
Standing just behind the Aramco and Gazprom, NIOC is the third largest in the world.
