Details of 50 oil and gas fields offered by Iran to foreigners

By Dalga Khatinoglu

Tehran on Saturday hosted 137 companies from 45 countries in a two-day conference, during which legal generalities of Iran's new model of oil and gas contracts were introduced. More details about the contracts will be unveiled in a conference which will be most likely held in London in February 2016.

The legal generalities of the contracts show that they will cover exploration, development, and production in many of the fields. Moreover, the parties will hold a stake in the output for more than two decades. The foreign partner's stake will be less than 50 percent.

However, it is unclear how the output percentage system will work in gas projects. Considering that Iran's gas contracts will be secured by the South Pars gas field, where the gas intended to be delivered to foreign companies will be sent to? Inside Iran, foreign companies are not possible to sell gas to consumers due to the subsidy reform plan, because gas price inside Iran is much less than its regional and global prices.

The contracts are not guaranteed by the Oil Ministry or the Central Bank of Iran. Each foreign company is obliged to incorporate an Iranian partner, so that operation will be alternatively changed between Iranian and foreign partners. Therefore, transfer of technology and knowledge by foreign company to its Iranian partner will be inevitable.

Also, the foreign company will be obliged to take protective production measures and increase oil recovery rate, which is normally about 20 percent.

The Iranian Oil Ministry will announce details about terms and conditions of each oil and gas field within related tenders for foreign companies. Technical and financial details of the projects are still unknown.

Hereunder are specifications of the oil and gas fields in brief, extracted from official statements and statistics:

Dalga Khatinoglu is an expert on Iran's energy sector, head of Trend Agency's Iran news service.