Baku, Azerbaijan, May 28
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran will send invitations for the first tender, based on newly designed oil and gas contracts, called Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) this week, Ali Kardor, the Islamic Republic’s deputy oil minister, said.
Invitations will be sent to 29 international companies which approved a bid in the country’s oil and gas tenders to participate in a tender for developing South Azadegan oilfield, Kardor, who heads the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said, Tasnim news agency reported May 28.
Some 29 companies, including France’s Total, Royal Dutch Shell, Italy’s Eni, Lukoil and Gazprom of Russia, Danish conglomerate Maersk, China’s CNPC and Sinopec, Austria’s OMV and Schlumberger, will receive the invitations and the tender documents will be sent to the firms which express readiness to take part in the tender, he added.
Iran introduced the legal generalities of IPC in November 2015, but the new contract model hasn’t been approved by the Supreme National Security Council yet.
The Oil Ministry hopes that the tenders will ease the return of oil and gas major companies to the country's emerging energy sector after lifting of some international restrictions in January 2016.
Iran plans to issue tenders on 49 oil and gas projects for foreigners worth $100 billion. Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said recently that some $30 billion worth of investment is expected to be attracted by IPC.
The country’s priority is developing West Karoon Block to increase oil output to 1.2 mb/d from this block.
West Karoon block, including North and South Azadegan fields, Yadavaran and North and South Yaran fields contains 64 billion barrels of in-situ reserves, which currently share about 6 percent of the country's total crude oil production.