Baku, Azerbaijan, May 4
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
A US oil delegation is scheduled to visit Iran this week to study investment opportunities in the country's oil industry.
The US delegation will hold meetings with Iranian officials, oil companies as well as contractors, the Islamic Republic's Mehr news agency reported May 4.
Alongside studying investment opportunities, the US delegation will survey partnership with Iranian companies involved in oil industry.
Iran's Deputy Oil Minister in Petrochemical Affairs Abbas Sheri Moqaddam has confirmed the US delegation's upcoming visit, forecasting that the visit will pave grounds for presence of the US international oil and gas companies in Iran once sanctions are lifted.
Abdolreza Haji Hosseinnejad, the managing director of Iran's Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC) said that an increasing number of international oil companies have been showing interest in Iran recently.
"For instance the representatives of Italy's Eni Oil Company had a meeting with the Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh on May 3 to voice their readiness to enter joint ventures with Tehran," Haji Hosseinnejad said.
He further said that many international companies are waiting the removal of sanctions against Iran and are ready to start activities here once the sanctions are lifted.
Earlier Mansour Moazzami Iran's deputy oil minister said that Tehran needs about $30 billion per year to maintain its oil output and for development of oil projects, said. Decline in investments has lead to delay and halt in the development projects of the oil industry, Moazzami added.
Some experts believe the ongoing trend of oil price fall will force Iranian administration to halt its oil and gas projects.
It should be noted that by holding 157 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves, Iran possesses the world's fourth largest reserves of crude oil.
Iran's crude oil export was above 2.2 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2011, but the western sanctions imposed in mid-2012 have pushed Iranian oil export volume to around one mb/d in 2013.
After achieving an interim nuclear agreement in November 2013, Iran's oil export increased steadily to around 1.11 mb/d, however, the volume reportedly decreased slightly during recent months again.
Edited by CN
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