World’s Largest Oil Driller Signs MoU with Iran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s largest oil driller by market value, said Sunday it had signed a preliminary deal to study an Iranian oil field.
A spokesman for Schlumberger, one of the world’s largest oil-services companies, said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) “for the non-disclosure of data required for a technical evaluation of a field development prospect,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
If completed, the deal would be the first in Iran for Schlumberger since European sanctions for the company to leave the country in 2010.
Schlumberger said the deal does not involve the execution of oilfield services operations and it intends to comply with the laws and regulations of the countries where it operates.
Though it is incorporated in Curacao in the Dutch Antilles, Schlumberger has one of its headquarters in Houston, while some of its shares trade in New York.
While most international sanctions on Iran’s energy industry were lifted in January, Washington has maintained a ban on US companies and citizens from investing in that country’s oil fields.
European oil giants have stepped into the breach, culminating with an agreement by France’s Total SA to join a $4.8 billion investment in an Iranian gas field hours before election of Donald Trump as US president.
Despite uncertainty over what the president-elect will do over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a July 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany), Schlumberger is not the only one to pursue Iranian opportunities.
Immediately after Trump’s election, Norway’s DNO signed up to study a key Iranian oil field near the Iraqi border.
European aircraft maker Airbus Group SE recently received US government backing for the export of more than 100 jetliners to Iran, despite a move by US lawmakers to curb such transactions.
