Iran says it will not increase its gas supply to Ankara in case of a possible shortage of gas in Turkey due to resent tensions with Moscow.
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During a press conference, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that the newly developed model of oil contracts, dubbed as Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC), was created to help the country attract investment from Asian and European investors. “They can come and use this opportunity”, Mr Zanganeh said of American companies, adding that he had not heard of any opposition.
“Zanganeh today unveiled contracts that effectively transfers the rights of exploration, extraction, exploitation and sale Iran’s oil to foreign companies for 25 years”, the conservative news website, rejanews.com, said.
This new model for oil and gas contracts is supposed to make the petroleum industry in the nation more attractive financially to the global firms, while jettisoning the previous buyback system that had been in place for about two decades.
The sanctions strangled Iran’s oil output, with its average daily production plunging by more than 1 million barrels, Agence France-Presse reported.
Oil Ministry officials said 137 foreign companies attended Saturday’s conference, including Repsol, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Technip, Schlumberger, Eni, Enel, Rosneft, Lukoil, Gazprom, Inpex, Statoil and Daewoo. Iran pumped 2.7 million barrels a day in October, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Iran could sign its 1st development contract in March or April, Kardor said. “The next step is for foreign vendors to make a technical assessment and choose a domestic partner”.
Takin: Yes definitely. I would like to point out that Iran has been open to foreign investment since about 20 years ago when the Islamic Republic parliament or the Majlis, the Islamic Assembly, they accepted and made a model, the buy-back model and since then they have been also improving the buy-back model until the sanctions were imposed on Iran unfortunately.
Iran will have between five and seven years to pay back initial sums invested by the foreign companies once production starts but cooperation and development in commercially viable fields could go on as long as 25 years, officials said.
Earlier in November, Iranian Deputy Trade Minister Mojtaba Khosrowtaj stated the country was ready to double its oil exports within three months after sanctions had been lifted. The projects include a combination of brown and green fields as well as exploration blocks up for development.
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Iran produces about 2.8mn barrels of oil per day, compared to 4.0 million bpd in 2011, following United States and other Western pressure on buyers to steer clear of the country. Last month it recalled its ambassador from Tehran and asked Iran’s envoy to leave over such claims.
