“There exists no problem in signing new oil contracts in Iran due to the extremely low cost of oil and gas production in the country which would never cause problems with repayment of contracts or with increasing the profitability of oil and gas projects even in the case of falling oil prices,” Bijan Zanganeh told the reporters on the sidelines of the conference for unveiling a new model for oil contracts called Iran Petroleum Contracts (IPC).
He said the average cost of producing a barrel of crude oil in Iran is currently less than 10 dollars per barrel adding “even if oil prices fall below 30 or 20 dollars a barrel, there would be no limits to oil and gas production in Iran.”
In response to a question about an increase of one 1.7 million barrels of oil and gas condensate in Iran during the post sanction era, Zanganeh noted, “in order to sign new oil contracts, we must provide the grounds to attract foreign oil companies because with modern since general conditions must be prepared for participation of domestic and foreign oil companies.”
The member of the cabinet referred to the possibility of signing new contracts worth 25 billion dollars after the lifting of sanctions; “the contracts will deal with development of South Pars phases, keeping production and even increasing the recovery factor of oil reserves,” he explained.
The minister further noted the willingness of most European and Asian oil companies to participate in oil and gas projects in Iran including Total of France, Eni of Italy as well as companies from Malaysia, China and Japan.
The official continued by stating that returning to the OPEC quota system requires the consensus of all countries while some oppose the return of quotas in OPEC.
“It is estimated that the upcoming meeting of OPEC will not yield any results with regard to resumption of quotas,” he added.
On the possibility of the return of US oil companies to Iran’s oil and gas industry during the post sanction era, the minister underlined “there are no restrictions for participation of US oil firms to invest in Iran’s oil and gas industry.”
HA/2980269
Your Comment