Iran Adds Five IOCs to IPC-qualified list
Iran has added four Russian companies – Rosneft, Zarubezhneft, Tatneft and Gazprom Neft – and Azerbaijan’s state-run oil company Socar to the 29-member list of already qualified foreign companies for participating in the country’s oil and gas projects.
Iran is preparing to issue tenders on 49 oil and gas fields gradually, based on newly designed contract model, called the Iran Petroleum Contract.
A top official at Socar confirmed the issue, but said it is waiting to see what is happening in the light of US sanctions on Iran. All of the abovementioned Russian companies have memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with Iran to study fields.
Zarubezhneft has been studying Aban and West Paydar with overal 2bn barrels oil in situ; Gazprom Neft and Tatneft also have MoUs to study Cheshmeh Khosh and Changouleh (with overall 6bn barrels reserves); and Dehloran (with 5.2bn barrels reserves) respectively.
Russian Gazprom and Lukoil are already in the qualified list. Lukoil has a MoU with Iran to study Mansouri and Ab Teymour with 30.3bn barrels of in-situ oil reserves. Iran’s oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh also said June 18 that French Total would sign a contract with Iran on development plan of South Pars phase 11 in coming weeks. The sides sealed a MoU last year to develop the $4.8bn project, aimed at producing 56mn m³/d of sour gas.
SP 11 is the only remaining phase of the 24-phase South Pars project, whose nominal capacity stands at 540mn m³/d, but it would reach 620mn m³/d by next year. The final capacity of SP is 720mn m³/d.
An oil ministry source told NGW that Iran and Italian Eni were preparing to sign a MoU on the Darquain oil field on June 20. Iran has signed about 30 MoUs with foreign and domestic companies to develop its upstream projects since some sanctions were lifted in January 2016. Iran says it plans to sign $15bn worth oil and gas contracts with foreigners this year (ending March 21).
In total, Iran needs $100bn investment in five years in upstream oil and gas projects, of which 80% is expected to come from abroad.
Iran desk