Iran to Sign $20bn Energy Contracts in 2018: Deputy Oil Minister
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran expects to seal energy contracts worth more than $20bn over the next year, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs Amir Hossein Zamaninia said.
Zamaninia told the Financial Times that the Islamic Republic was negotiating 28 provisional agreements with foreign oil companies. These include Maersk Oil and Rosneft to develop the oil layer in South Pars, the world’s largest gas field, and with Russian firms, Lukoil, Gazprom, and Zarubezhneft to develop oilfields, including Paydar Gharb, Abteymour and Mansouri.
“Any international oil company that you know, we are negotiating with . . . except the Americans,” he said.
He added that “if conservatively put” Tehran anticipated signing contracts worth more than $20bn over the next 12 months.
Zamaninia said he believed there was “no tangible change in international oil companies’ determination (to invest) and the speed of their negotiations with Iran” since US President Donald Trump refused to certify the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
In early July, the Iranian Oil Ministry signed a $5 billion contract with France’s Total and China’s National Petroleum Company (CNPC) on development of the 11th phase of South Pars gas field.
Total has a 50.1 percent share in the 20-year deal. The state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. has a 30 percent stake and Iran’s Petropars has 19.9 percent.
The deal includes 30 wells and two production units.
