TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran Oil Minister said his country has signed contracts worth $40 billion with domestic and foreign companies since 20 months ago.
Speaking at the second ministerial session of the 8th OPEC International Seminar entitled “Investments, finance and inclusive petroleum growth strategies” at the Austrian capital, Javad Owji added Iran’s oil industry has planned to attract $250 billion capital within the next eight years.
Iran tops the world’s rankings in terms of aggregate crude oil and natural gas reserves, said the minister, adding the country is the holder of 154 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil and more than 33 trillion cubic meters of natural gas.
He said Iran is currently producing 3.8 million barrels of crude oil and gas condensates and more than one billion cubic meters (bcm) of rich (sour) gas a day.
Given the country’s high oil and gas production capacities, the 13th (incumbent) administration has formulated a detailed plan for boosting the output capacity, the minister mentioned.
Iranian experts are developing the country’s oil and gas fields from A to Z despite sanctions, said Owji, adding they also develop and overhaul oil and gas refineries, and no foreign expert is needed.
“We are faced with brutal sanctions imposed by one country and these sanctions against Iran’s economy and oil industry have not been imposed by the United Nations,” said the top official, continuing, “We have, however, managed to increase oil and gas output by using experience we have gained in developing oil and gas fields and constructing refineries and petrochemical complexes during long years of sanctions.”
Today’s world is in dire need of energy, in particular natural gas, security, underlined Owji, adding Iranian companies are developing the country’s onshore and offshore gas fields and Iran is now self-sufficient in horizontal and vertical drilling technologies.
The terms and conditions of Iran’s new oil contracts are aimed at attracting investors, said the minister and continued the new deals are “appealing” to investors and a number of such contracts on development of oil and gas fields and construction of refinery-integrated petrochemical plants have been inked during the recent years.
Based on new oil contracts, investors use revenues earned by selling products of hydrocarbon fields, he stated and added, “Some countries, including Russia, and even oil companies of neighboring states have welcomed such contracts.”
New oil contracts have been drawn up in a way to give a return on investment (ROI) in the shortest time possible, he said and continued foreign investors would make handsome profits when they develop oil and gas fields.
Owji expressed Iran’s readiness to attract investors in upstream, downstream, and associated petroleum gas (APG) collection projects.
Meanwhile Owji said discussions on the Iranian gas hub are being conducted with various countries, including Russia.
“We have been negotiating very well with Russia on a national gas hub in Iran. We have good gas reserves and infrastructure for it. And besides us, our neighbors also have excellent potential in terms of gas reserves – Qatar, Turkmenistan. These factors create a great opportunity to turn Iran into a regional gas hub,” Owji said on the sidelines of the 8th OPEC International Seminar.
Sputnik quoted Owji as saying that Iran is successfully conducting discussions with various countries and that Moscow-Tehran talks began two months ago.
Owji said in early June that Iran, with the participation of Russia, Turkmenistan, and Qatar, is seeking to create a gas hub in the industrial region of Asaluyeh in the southern Iranian province of Bushehr, located on the coast of the Persian Gulf.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in mid-May that Russia and Iran were discussing the creation of an electronic trading platform for gas sales in southern Iran, including using Iranian gas, which in the future will be produced jointly with Russian companies.
Experts say that U.S. sanctions on Iran, which have been in place since early 2018, have failed to dent the country’s ability to expand its massive petroleum industry.
They believe a major expansion in the Iranian natural gas sector in recent years has compensated the relatively low levels of production and exports of crude oil in the country.
Iran is currently producing some 3.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and more than 1 billion cubic meters per day of natural gas. The country has some 10 active oil refineries and 21 natural gas refineries while it also counts on massive hard currency revenues from its petrochemicals sector.
