Azerbaijan, Baku, July 1 /Trend, M.Moezzi/
Iran's National Development Fund (NDF) will designate 18 percent of its funds for oil industry projects.
With Asian and European banks closing their doors to Iranian oil projects, the NDF has become an alternative source of funding, Mehr news agency reported.
The difficulty in finding funding and foreign partners for its oil projects comes from the sanctions effort aimed at Iran, its oil industry and its Central Bank. Today, July 1, marks the start of the European Union's ban on buying Iran's oil. The European companies, who insure almost all of the world's oil tankers, will stop insuring those vessels carrying Iranian oil. The sanctions have made it practically impossible for Iran to conduct international banking transactions, all part of an effort led by the U.S. and its allies to make Iran provide answers about its nuclear programme. The West is convinced Iran's nuclear programme is military in nature and Iran insists it is civilian and peaceful.
The Fund and Iran's Oil Ministry are scheduled to sign a contract tomorrow, July 2.
The $14 billion contract will be for a number of oil, gas and petrochemical projects with priority given to developing the oil and gas fields Iran shares with other countries.