Iran keen on attracting more investments
By Nigar Abbasova
Iran is planning to attract some $185 billion to the oil and gas sector of the country through a new model of oil contracts, Trend quoted Amir Hossein Zamani Nia, Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs as saying.
He said that attraction of foreign investments mainly depends on political and economic conditions, while the Islamic Republic believes that Iran Petroleum Contracts (IPC) is very attractive from the point of view of investment environment of the country, domestic stability, security and high profitability rate.
“Profitability of investments made in the petrochemical projects implemented in Iran exceeds 25 percent,” he said.
Iran previously presented new models of contracts for the development of some 49 oil and gas fields of the country. IPC type of oil contracts was developed with an aim to increase attractiveness of oil projects for foreign investors. IPC offers to contractors different stages of exploration, development and production.
The first IPC is expected to be signed in the months to come. IPC is considered to be a cornerstone of the country's plan to raise crude production to the pre-sanctions level of four million barrels per day.
Iran’s Council of Ministers has recently passed a regulation governing the general conditions, structure and terms of the IPC Regulation. The parties to the IPC will be the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and a consortium of oil companies (Contractor).
The regulation envisages that there will be three types of İPC including contracts for exploration, development and production, developing existing discoveries and improvement of oil extraction at existing fields.
Iran's oil industry will need $200 billion of investment to help it develop in the coming years, mostly from outside the country, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said earlier
“We need $200 billion of investment...to reach our development goals," Zanganeh said. "We will receive $15-20 billion from the National Development Fund, but internal resources are not enough for our needs," he added.
Iran holds the world's fourth-largest proved crude oil reserves and the world's second-largest natural gas reserves. Despite the country's abundant reserves, Iran's crude oil production has substantially declined, and natural gas production growth has been slower than expected over the past few years.
International sanctions have profoundly affected Iran's energy sector and have prompted a number of cancellations or delays of upstream oil and gas projects.
The country reportedly needs to attract $501 billion by 2025 for developing its upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas projects.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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