Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 4
By Emil Ilgar – Trend:
Iranian oil minister says stable laws are needed for attracting foreign investment, IRNA reported Apr. 4.
Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh explained that fluctuations and constantly changing laws can cause concerns among investors.
Apparently, Zanganeh’s statement is a reaction to hardliners who criticized the newly designed oil contract model, called Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC). Iran presented the IPC in November 2015, but its ratification by parliament lasted more than a year.
Iran has planned to attract $100 billion to develop 49 oil and gas fields based on IPC, of which 80 percent is projected to be foreign investment. However, despite signing many memorandums of understanding, Iran hasn’t been able to issue a tender based on IPC as of now.
Zanganeh also called on the Judiciary System and Government to facilitate the investment laws and said he hopes more foreign investments will be attracted to oil and petrochemical sectors during the current fiscal year (started March 21).
According to him, Iran plans to double the petrochemical production capacity to 120 million tons per year by 2021 and needs $50-70 billion of investment, of which the majority would be foreign funds.