Iran: New oil contracts more attractive
Iran is touting its new energy contract model, hoping to attract foreign investment to its vast oil and gas sector after the removal of sanctions.
"Iran is going to apply a new version of oil contract model in order to make it more attractive for foreign investors, with similar terms to a PSA (production sharing agreement)," a National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) official said.
Shahrouz Abolhosseini, NIOC’s petroleum products pricing manager, made the comments during a business meeting in the South Korean capital, media reports said.
"NIOC aims to embark on joint ventures with foreign investors and international companies in the oil and gas industry," he was quoted as saying.
Iran’s most common model before 2012 was the buyback deal -- a risk service contract under which foreign companies would invest in the oil sector projects without owning resources.
The contractor funded all investments for the project and received remuneration in cash or its equivalent in kind before transferring operation of the developed field to Iran after a set number of years.
Ali Arshi, adviser to the deputy minister for international affairs and commerce at Iran's Ministry of Petroleum, said in Seoul the main advantage of the new contracts over the previous buybacks would be more contractual flexibility.
The new contracts called the Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) will be unveiled at a London conference planned for December in which a combination of brown and green fields as well as exploration blocks will be put up for grabs.
Energy officials have said Iran has identified nearly 50 oil and gas development projects worth $185 billion for presentation to foreign investors.
The country hopes to boost crude production to 5.7 million barrels a day, Mehdi Hosseini, head of Iranian Ministry of Petroleum’s Oil Contracts Revision Committee, said last month.
The Iranian energy delegation’s visit to Seoul comes after South Korea's deputy trade minister, Woo Tae-hee, traveled to Tehran last month at the head of a delegation of 30 representatives of oil, gas and construction industries.
South Korea purchased 180,000 barrels per day of oil from Iran before sanctions were imposed on Tehran in 2012. This figure is currently a little more than 100,000 barrels, Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said.
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