Iran seeks Western companies comeback
By Sara Rajabova
Iran named seven Western oil companies that it favors for investment in the country's energy sector after sanctions relief.
Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said those companies are Total of France, Royal Dutch Shell, Italy's ENI, Norway's Statoil, Britain's BP, and the U.S. companies Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips.
Zanganeh said he talked to some companies at the OPEC meeting on December 4, although not the American ones so far.
"We have no restrictions for U.S. companies. Their own administration placed some limitations over them twenty years ago. We have no limitations for doing projects in Iran," Iranian media quoted Zanganeh as saying.
In October, Total said it is waiting for U.S.-led sanctions against Iran to be lifted in order to resume operations in Iran.
Early in September, the Iranian Oil ministry invited Shell (UK), Total (France), Repsol (Spain), Inpex (Japan), OMV (Austria), and Statoil (Norway) to participate in the development of oil and gas projects in the country.
Zanganeh also said earlier Iran has started gas negotiations with Russia's Gazprom Company and the representatives of the Russian government.
The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.
Iran's crude oil is subject to an EU embargo that started on July 1, 2012.
Iran holds the world's third-largest oil reserves and 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.