Mr. Ali Akbar Mer’ati in interview with Public Relations Department:
Education and Research Are Long-term Processes
Ali Mer’ati, official in charge of gas compression stations project, said in an interview with the Public Relations Department that education and research are long-term processes and ignoring them is like refusing to water planted seeds.
Ali Akbar Mer'ati was born in 1956 and is a graduate of structure engineering from Sharif University of Technology. He holds an MBA from the University of Wollongong, Australia, and was employed by the National Iranian Gas Company in 1982. Soon after his employment he was appointed official in charge of gas supply to Tehran province due to his experiences in Ahvaz steel industries and Masjed Soleiman projects. His other posts include official in charge of liquid gas and gas tanks projects, emergency project of Bandar Abbas, Sarkhoun gas refinery project, official in charge of implementation and supervision over projects and finally, official in charge of gas compression stations project (in 2003). He has also been in charge of construction of Sarkhoun gas refinery, the first totally Iranian gas refinery, which was inaugurated in 1996. He holds a record for annual gas transmission over 1,000 km.
Mer'ati said about gas compression stations project that a total of 9 stations had been made operational from 1992 to 2002. “However, from 2003, when I was appointed the official in charge of the project, I could remove problems and standardize instructions which greatly helped implement the project. As a result four stations were made operational in 2003, three stations in 2004, three stations in 2005, seven stations in 2006, four stations in 2007, and three stations this year. It means that an average of five stations have been made operational per year.”
As for problems on the way of building stations, the official said, “The liquidity problem is common for all the National Iranian Gas Company projects, but our major problem was inadequacy of specialized manpower which is directly related to training. The National Iranian Gas Company has made more investment on rapid implementation of projects and education combined with training, are two major factors which have been relatively marginalized.” He recommended that officials of the National Iranian Gas Company should think about the years ahead when experienced personnel will be retired and should pay more attention to education of skilled manpower.
Public Relations Department of Gas Engineering and Development Company
