New Oil Contracts Signify Iran's Resolve to Boost Int'l Interaction: Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iran has embarked on the revision of its oil contracts with other countries, a deputy oil minister said Saturday, noting that the initiative comes in line with the country’s move to boost interaction with the world countries.
“Simultaneous with the outset of (nuclear) negotiations with the (Group) 5+1, Iran has started to revise the oil contracts, which signifies Iran’s interaction with the world in the economic and political arena,” Deputy Oil Minister for International and Commercial Affairs Ali Majedi said on the sidelines of an oil conference here in Tehran on Saturday.
“We hope that the world gets the message of Iran’s interaction,” he added.
The Iranian oil ministry has prepared a new, updated model of oil contracts which are said to be much more attractive to the international companies that are vying for investment in Iran.
The deputy minister further called for a new global attitude towards the country, and added, “The world’s view on Iran should change, and we should help this change of view happen.”
“By revising the oil contracts, simultaneous with Iran’s interactive approach in the political arena, we are pursuing to change the world’s view on Iran,” Majedi pointed out.
Iran believes that development of the oil and gas fields of the regional countries would increase the security across the region, Majedi noted, stressing that free trade should allow the countries to vie with each other for attracting foreign investment.
On November 24, 2013, Iran and the sextet of world powers signed a six-month deal on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Geneva, which took effect on January 20.
Based on the interim deal (the Joint Plan of Action), the world powers agreed to suspend some non-essential sanctions and to impose no new nuclear-related bans in return for Tehran's decision to suspend its 20% enrichment for a period of six months.
Meanwhile, the country has drawn up plans to give a fresh impetus to its oil and gas industry by revising the energy contracts with the foreign companies.
Iran, which has the largest gas reserves in the world, seeks to enhance gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments.
In its Statistical Review of World Energy released in June 2013, the BP classed Iran as the world’s top gas reserves holder with 33.6 trillion cubic meters.
The company downgraded Russia’s reserves estimate to 32.9 trillion cubic meters from 44.6 trillion cubic meters in last year's report, putting global proven gas reserves at 187.3 trillion cubic meters as of the end of 2012.
