Azerbaijan , Baku, Aug. 08/Trend/
Iranian newly appointed Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi says that Iran does not need foreign oil companies.
Ghasemi stated in an interview with Pananews that Iran planed to attract $40 billion to develop the joint oil and gas fields and does not need the participation of the foreign companies in these projects any more.
Foreign oil company activity in Iran has plunged in the past year, according to a US congressional report last week, which says that half of the 41 companies identified in a previous report in early 2010 had withdrawn or were in the process of withdrawing from commercial activity in Iran.
"Developing the joint fields is Ministry's major priority, attracting $40 billion during the current solar year (started on March 21, 2011) by issuing bonds, attracting domestic and foreign and getting bank loads.
Iran is planning to produce more than 1.1 million barrels of crude oil from its shared oil fields by 2015.
Currently, Iran has 19 onshore and offshore joint oil and gas fields with neighboring countries, eight shared with Iraq, one with Turkmenistan and ten with the Persian Gulf countries, namely Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar.
According to the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015), Iran would invest $75 billion in developing 19 joint oil and gas fields.