Oil experts attending the 9th annual World National Oil Companies Congress in London, have expressed interest in cooperation with Iran’s oil sector after the economic sanctions are lifted.
“Given Iran’s huge energy resources and the prolonged halt in cooperation, international companies are looking forward to returning to Iran as soon as the sanctions fade away,” Simon Telling, operations director at RPS Group, told IRNA.
Besides termination of the sanctions, Iran needs to revise its contractual framework for cooperation in its vast energy sector and offer foreign firms meaningful incentives, Telling added.
“It was interesting for me to see the Iranian oil minister set up a committee to modify the current buy-back model just one week after the Geneva talks,” Paul Stevens, a professor at UCL International Energy Policy Institute (IEPI) and a senior research fellow at Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) added.
On 24 November 2013, the Geneva interim agreement, officially titled the Joint Plan of Action, was a pact signed between Iran and the P5+1 countries in Geneva, Switzerland. It consists of a short-term freeze of portions of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for decreased economic sanctions on Iran, as the countries work towards a long-term agreement.
The conferees concluded that global oil prices will hover around $60-$70 per barrel in the foreseeable future, Laurent Ruseckas, advisor on Eurasian oil and gas at Veracity Worldwide who chaired the conference for two days said.
He recalled that oil production costs in Iran, however, are relatively lower than that of the US shale, in continental shelves, and deepwater. “Despite the fall in oil prices, production will remain economical in Iran,” he was quoted as saying.
Attila Nyikos, vice president for international affairs at the Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Authority said, “Iran is one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers and has great potential to supply natural gas to Hungry,” if and when the oil and economic sanctions against Iran are lifted by the EU.
The conference was held June 15 with a briefing on Iran’s oil market and followed by two days of intensive discussions about business opportunities and future outlook of the global oil industry.
Iran and six world powers (five permanent members of UN Security Council, namely Britain, China, France, Russia, the US plus Germany) are trying to meet a self-imposed end-June deadline to resolve a nuclear standoff over Tehran’s nuclear energy program, which the West fears is aimed at developing a weapons capability - a charge Iran denies, saying it is for peaceful purposes.
