Tehran, Iran, March 3
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad – Trend:
A senior Iranian oil official has expressed hope that the country would finalize several major contracts over the next fiscal year (starts March 21).
“Ten expert groups are currently engaged in new discussions on oil deals. Although they have been going on slowly, we hope new contracts would be signed over the next year,” Ali Kardor, Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company, told the 2nd Iran International Exploration & Production Congress & Exhibition (Iran E&P 2018) in Tehran.
Following the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA aka nuclear deal), the Islamic Republic, freed from crippling sanctions, has sought to develop the country’s oil and gas fields.
Tehran, immediately after removing the country’s oil sanctions in 2016, introduced the Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) in a move to replace the old buyback model.
National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) later said it launched serious talks with potential foreign suitors in order to hold tenders to hand out the development projects.
The country’s shared fields, including West Karoun region, which has five major fields of North Azadegan, South Azadegan, North Yaran, South Yaran and Yadavaran, were among the prioritized projects to be developed in the framework of the new IPC tenders.
Iranian oil ministry plans to boost the output of the region to 700,000 barrels per day by March 2019. However, the oil ministry has been slow in fulfilling the plans and no serious improvement has been reported on holding any tenders within the IPC model.
Iran’s overall crude output has reached about 3.8 million barrels per day and the country currently exports about 2.6 million barrels of crude and condensate.