Azerbaijan, Baku, Apr. 15 /Trend F.Milad/
The National Iranian Offshore Oilfields Company (NIOOC) plans to ink $14 billion worth of contracts to develop offshore oilfields, the NIOOC managing director said, adding that 70 percent of the figure will be used to develop joint oilfields.
"Some $9 billion worth of contracts were signed last year to develop Salman, Lavan and Forouz B fields," Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh told Mehr news agency.
Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said in August 2011 that the Iranian government should consider plans for the development of joint oilfields in the border areas with Iraq.
The government should increase the budgets for the development of joint oilfields, Qasemi added. The oil industry's infrastructure needs more than 500 trillion rials (about $41 billion) of investment to achieve objectives of the 20-Year Outlook Plan, which ends in 2025, Qasemi was quoted as saying.
Iran has attached the priority to boosting gas production capacity of its joint oilfields with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Qasemi noted.
Iran sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia and is trying to grow its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in its South Pars gas field.
The field is shared by Iran and Qatar. The Iranian share, which is divided into 29 phases, has about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight percent of the total world reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.