Iran invites foreign firms to develop its oil, gas industry

Whether United States companies will face any restrictions regarding investment in Iran, Javadi said the government imposes no restrictions to their presence and work in the country.

The Opec member’s output is down a million barrels per day (bpd) since the start of 2012 at 2.7 million bpd, which deprives it of billions of dollars in oil revenue.

Iran’s new oil sector contracts – generally referred to as the Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) – will be a modification of the traditional buy-back risk service contracts and has been specifically created to increase the attractiveness of Iranian oil projects for foreign investors.

Essar Oil’s crude imports from Iran declined almost 16 percent in August compared to the previous month, ahead of a month-long shutdown of its Vadinar refinery from mid-September for maintenance, according to tanker arrival data obtained from sources and assessed by Thomson Reuters Oil Analytics.

“The global oil market will stay bearish in the short to medium term”, Javadi told the conference.

Mr Javadi said potential investors would be asked to consider contracts over 20 to 25 years.

The ministry’s official news agency SHANA said the cabinet approved a draft document outlining contracts for exploration, production and development of oil and natural gas fields in Iran. Another seminar about the projects is scheduled for October 19 to 21 in Tehran, with Bijan Zanganeh, Iran’s oil minister, set to attend.

The National Iranian Oil Co. called on event organizer CWC Group to postpone the London conference from December to the end of February for unspecified reasons. That would leave up to 90 million cubic metres a year available for export. Talks have been renewed with European Union countries to supply them with natural gas via pipeline and liquefied natural gas, with plans to bring its first LNG plant into operation within 2 1/2 years with capacity of 10 million tons a year, he said.