According to NIOC, Masoud Karbasian stated, "The National Iranian Oil Company, as the largest economic enterprise in the country, has always tried to design and develop new methods for raising capital, such as reforming contracts and attracting public partnership by issuing securities and tapping capital attraction capacities in order to make up for the absence of foreign investors and financiers, and provide the necessary funds for the implementation of oil and gas projects."
He said the potentialities and capabilities of the private sector needed to be tapped in order to exploit the small and large-scale public and private sector resources in upstream oil industry.
The NIOC CEO said that oil resources belonged to the Iranian nation so public participation could be used in order to bring the sub-surface riches to the ground to be enjoyed by all the people.
Karbasian further said that NIOC was in talks with operating banks regarding issuance of various forms of securities in order to attract capital for oil and gas projects. He also voiced NIOC’s readiness to provide the required guarantees in this regard.
He added that in the past few months about $8 billion had been financed through capital market for oil projects, adding, "The stock market has come to our aid with the possibility of offering exchangeable securities and we can use various kinds of bonds, project funds, fixed-rate bonds, and Salaf bonds for financing.”
According to the official, issuance of partnership bonds would be considered commensurate with the physical progress of the projects.
MNA/SHANA