The 66-year-old coach previously worked as head coach of Sepahan in 2005.
Sanat Naft parted company with Firouz Karimi last week.
Tavares has coached Al-Hilal, FC Fribourg, Shenzhen and Al-Salmiya as well.
Ex-Iran coach Dragan Skocic, former Esteghlal trainer Winfried Schafer and Alireza Mansourian are also among the candidates to take charge of the team.
Sanat Naft sits 16th in the Iran Professional League table with six points out of 11 matches.