Iran welcomes boosting cooperation with Total

Iran’s deputy petroleum minister says Tehran welcomes expansion of energy cooperation with the French oil giant Total.

“National Iranian Oil Company welcomes expansion of cooperation with Total,” Rokneddin Javadi was quoted as saying by Shana.

“Total has already voiced preparedness to sign new contracts with Iran,” said Javadi after a meeting with Arnaund Breuillac, the president of exploration & production at Total Company.

He also pointed to the new contracts prepared by the NIOC and said great cooperation opportunities will open up once the contracts are unveiled.

According to the report by Shana, Arnaund Breuillac also held separate meetings with senior Iranian officials including petroleum minister Bijan Zangeneh on Sunday.

Expanding cooperation on exploration, production and marketing crude and LNG as well as petrochemical products were among the issues discussed in the meeting.

New oil deals

Iran’s petroleum officials have already announced that they will unveil new oil contracts in early November.

“The first phase of the new contracts will be unveiled in November in Tehran and a follow-up conference will be held in one month or two in London,” NIOC chief Rokneddin Javadi has been quoted as saying by the media.

Back in August, Iran’s Petroleum Minister Bijan Zangeneh announced that new oil development contracts will be unveiled at a conference in London slated for December.

“New agreements with foreign companies will be signed within the framework of Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) which I think will be more attractive,” he noted.

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

It offers different stages of exploration, development and production to the contractors as an integrated package.

Post-sanctions era

Iran sits on the world’s fourth-biggest oil reserves and seeks to raise its crude output in a bid to regain its market share.

The country had the second-biggest output in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) before the US-led sanctions banning the purchase, transport, finance and insuring of its crude began July 2012.

Iran currently exports more than 1 million barrels of oil per day. It has already unveiled plans to add another million to its export capacity within six months after the removal of the sanctions as a result of the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries.

The removal of the sanctions is expected to take effect in the first half of 2016. 

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