No new oil contracts to foreign companies delivered Iran says

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 9

By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran has not delivered drafts of new oil contracts to foreign companies.

Mehdi Hosseini, head of the Islamic Republic's Oil Ministry's Oil Contracts Revision Committee, rejected a Reuters report about sending new draft oil contracts to foreign firms, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported on Feb. 9.

On Feb. 3, Reuters quoted Iranian oil officials and Western diplomatic sources as saying that to prepare for any agreement Iran has already circulated new draft oil contracts to foreign firms to attract business once the restrictions end.

Iranian sources declined to identify which companies had seen the draft oil contracts. There has been oil industry speculation that Shell and ConocoPhillips could be among parties to have been courted.

Hosseini added that conditions are not appropriate for holding a seminar to unveil the new oil contracts.

"Although we consulted with some oil companies to define the model of contracts, but the text of the contracts has not been submitted to them," he said.

However, the participation of foreign companies in Iran's oil industry is dependent upon lifting the international sanctions, he added.

Hosseini said Jan. 21. Iran has negotiated with the majority of leading oil and gas companies from the EU and Asia during the modifying process of the buyback contracts' new generation.

The new contracts will be implemented for a number of projects to explore, develop and increase the efficiency rate of the country's oil and gas fields, he said.

Under a buyback deal, the host government agrees to pay the contractor an agreed price for all volumes of hydrocarbons the contractor produces.

Edited by CN