Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 17
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran will sign several new oil and gas contracts worth $10 billion with foreign and domestic companies until March 2017, Ali Kardor, Iran’s deputy oil minister, said.
The development contracts will cover upstream oil and gas sectors, Kardor said, Mehr news agency reported Sept. 17.
Kardor, who heads the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said Iran will also hold tenders to assign development of three oil and gas fields to contractors this fiscal year (to end March 2017).
The NIOC has already signed seven non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with international oil companies, including French Total, Russian Lukoil and Zarubezhneft, Indonesian Pertamina, Austrian OMV and German Wintershall.
Under the agreements, the companies will undertake studies in Iran’s oil fields and will submit the study results to the NIOC.
It was earlier announced that Iran plans to issue the first tender for oil and gas projects, based on its new contract model called Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC), in the next Iranian month of Mehr (Sept. 22 to Oct. 22).
The tender for development of South Azadegan oil field would probably be the first IPC-based project to be introduced to foreigners.
The Islamic Republic has planned $185 billion worth of oil and gas projects by 2021 and hopes to attract foreign investments by using IPCs.
Unlike the old contracts, IPC allows foreign companies to sign long-term contracts with Iran (20-25 years) and receive a percentage of produced oil as long as the field is active. This would encourage the foreign company to increase the field's recovery rate to receive more oil in the long term.