Tehran, Iran, May 6
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad - Trend:
Deputy Managing Director of NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company) for Development and Engineering Affairs Gholamreza Manouchehri said Iranian contractors will develop the country’s major oil projects in the south of the country under the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracting arrangement.
Some 35 EPC contracts worth $6 billion will be awarded to Iranian contractors to implement major oil and gas projects in the country’s southern Khuzestan Province, Manouchehri told the Trend news agency on May 6.
He added that contractors are required to source their equipment from domestic companies in line with the policy of job creation and avoiding capital flight.
The senior Iranian oil official also said that the NIOC has set sight on more than 100 projects in the current Iranian calendar year, beginning March 2017.
Iran needs foreign investments to search and increase the production potential of its oil and gas fields, since the production capacity of Iranian oil wells annually falls by 8 percent.
The Islamic Republic is expected to find many foreign investors for the development of its oil and gas fields. Presently, contracts have been signed for the development of the 11th phase of South Pars (the South Pars gas field is the biggest in the world, with reserves of 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensate) with France's Total and China's CNPC, as well as a contract for the re-development of the Aban and Paydare Qarb oil fields with the Russian company Zarubezhneft.