Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 22
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The Iranian government will approve the new model of oil contracts named Iran Petroleum Contract or the IPC in next two weeks, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, the Islamic Republic oil minister said.
The new model contract will be introduced to foreign investors in conferences in Tehran and London, Zanganeh said, the oil ministry's official SHANA news agency reported Sept. 22.
The IPC will be a modification of the traditional buy-back risk service contracts and has been specifically designed to increase the attractiveness of Iranian oil projects for foreign investors.
The IPC contact offers exploration, development and production of the oil and gas fields in an integrated package. However the ownership of the fields will not be transferred to the foreign side, according to the report.
The new contacts also aimed at transferring new technology to Iran. Iranian experts should be present in the projects alongside the foreign companies to become familiar with the modern technologies, based on the IPC.
Iran eyes to increase the recovery factor of its oil fields, which are in their second half-life, losing 8 to 14 percent of their production level naturally each year.
The Islamic Republic shares about 9.3 percent of total proved conventional crude oil reserves and each one percent oil recovery rate can bring about $80 billion more revenues for Iran based on the current prices.
Foreign oil firms are in intense talks to return to the Iranian market once sanctions on the country are lifted. Intense talks are being held with delegations from European and Asian countries, so that they can return to the Iranian market promptly after the sanctions are lifted, Mehdi Hosseini, head of Iran Oil Ministry's Contracts Revision Committee, said in July.
Tens of projects in the upstream sector of the oil industry have been defined within the framework of the new model of contracts, he noted. He said that the value of these contracts may exceed $100 billion.
Edited by CN
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