Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Following recent slight thawing in the U.S.-Iran relations, which can cause easing of the sanctions imposed on Iran, some foreign oil companies said they will return Iran if sanctions are lifted.

Iranian Oil Minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh wrote on his Facebook page that major foreign oil companies have expressed hope for intensive cooperation with Iran's National Oil Company after the sanctions against the country are lifted.

He said that the representatives of these companies have contacted Iran's officials and held talks with them regarding the return to Iran's oil industry.

Zanganeh also added that the Oil ministry will spare no effort to increase Iran's crude oil production capacity up to 4 mbpd till the end of the current solar year (will be ended on March 21, 2014).

Meanwhile, Chief Executive of the French energy giant Total Christophe de Margerie said the company will return to Iran, if international sanctions are lifted on petroleum exports, AFP news agency reported.

"Today there is an embargo. This embargo is valid for everybody and we will wait for this embargo to be lifted," Margerie said.

De Margerie hoped that this would happen "as soon as possible".

The U.S. and the EU have imposed sanctions on Iran's oil export and banking system, as a result of which Iran started experiencing problems with exports of oil and receiving petrodollars.

Each country is currently allowed to deposit the money for importing Iranian crude oil using its national currency to a bank account in the same country. Iran is allowed to use the money for importing certain goods only from that country.

Early in September, the Iranian Oil ministry invited Shell (UK), Total (France), Repsol (Spain), Inpex (Japan), OMV (Austria), and Statoil (Norway) to participate in development of oil and gas projects in the country.

Prior to the international sanctions being imposed on Iran, all of the mentioned companies have worked in Iran.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that Iran produced 2.680 million barrels of oil per day in August and exported 985,000 bpd, up 100,000 bpd compared to July.

OPEC's evaluation suggests that Iran's crude oil production in the previous year was around 2.975 million barrels per day.

Iran holds the world's third-largest proven oil reserves and the second-largest natural gas reserves, and plans to use foreign companies for various oil and gas related projects.

The country's total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels, with about 140 billion barrels of extractable oil.

Moreover, heavy and extra heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.