Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Iran has announced presentation of its long-awaited new model of oil contracts within the coming week.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said new contract formats, generally referred to as Iran Petroleum Contracts, for energy deals will be introduced on November 28-29.

The new contracts are expected to solve some problems of the Iranian oil industry.

Zangeneh said a number of oil projects in the framework of the new model of contracts will be presented to domestic and foreign companies, Shana news agency reported.

It is predicted that $30 billion investment to be attracted by the new oil deals, he said.

The minister said Iran’s petrochemical industry requires more than $ 50 billion investment and the government has not allocated funds for this sector so far.

The new model of oil contracts IPC offers exploration, development, and production at oil and gas fields in an integrated package. However, the ownership of the fields will not be transferred to the foreign side.

The IPC is aimed at transferring new technology to Iran. Iranian experts should be present at the project sites alongside the foreign companies' representatives to familiarize themselves with the modern technologies used in the field.

The IPC will be a modification of the traditional buy-back risk service contracts and has been specifically designed to increase the attractiveness of Iranian oil projects for foreign investors.

The Islamic Republic prepares its oil and gas sector for boom after the lifting of the international sanctions on the country.

Iran voiced readiness to double oil exports up to two million barrels per day within three months after lifting the sanctions.

Mojtaba Khosrotaj, the Iranian First Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade has recently said Iran is an OPEC member, with a quota of 4.3 million barrels of oil before the oil embargo was imposed.

"Previously, we produced 1.8 million barrels of oil per day for domestic consumption and 2.5 - for export before the sanctions,” he said. “At present, we export nearly one million barrels a day. We are fully ready to add 500,000 barrels of oil more for export after lifting the sanctions. We will be able to add 500,000 barrels per day more within a few months, maybe three."

Tehran has been vying to regain its oil market share since its nuclear deal with world powers in July in exchange for removing sanctions on Iran's energy and financial industries.

Tehran has asked the 12-nation OPEC cartel of oil producers to make room for İran, which was not met willingly.

Iran also asked OPEC to reduce its total oil production to stay within the daily quota.

OPEC member countries are due to meet on December 4 to assess the bloc’s production policy and the global oil market, months after their June decision not to cut oil production despite a slump in global oil prices.

Before the most recent round of sanctions went into effect three years ago, Iran was able to sell oil to 21 countries. By mid-2012, that was down to six: China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey.

Iran’s crude output has been rising for two years and now stands at about 2.9 million barrels a day, the highest level since 2012.

However, it won’t be allowed to sell that extra crude until sometime next year, when the International Atomic Energy Agency verifies that Iran has complied with curbs on its nuclear program.

The monitoring needed for that to happen probably won’t be in place until January or February, according to Bloomberg.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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