Iran can sign $20-30 billion worth of oil and gas contracts with international companies over the next two years, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in a televised interview Tuesday night after holding a news conference on the Third GECF Summit earlier in the day.
Referring to the revised version of Iran oil and gas contracts, Zanganeh said the Persian Gulf country has lined up three types of projects, including development of oil and gas fields such as Azadegan, Farzad and Phase 11 of South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, and enhanced oil and gas (EOR/EGR) projects to raise output from existing fields, Shana reported.
Iran will lift the curtain on its long-awaited Iran Petroleum Contract in a conference on November 28-29 in Tehran to attract billions of dollars in foreign direct investment for up to 50 projects.
On whether the new contracts stack up well against Iraqi contracts, the oil minister said Baghdad has taken a page from Iran in preparing their oil and gas deals.
"They have good contracts, because Iraq has raised crude output from 2.2 million barrels per day to 4.2 million bpd over the past several years," he said.
Zanganeh noted that Iran will pump more oil in the post-sanctions period to regain lost ground in the global crude market and will not put the brakes on production "even if prices fall to $30 a barrel".
LNG Plans
Iran is looking for cooperation with foreign firms to boost liquefied natural gas production, as the country is preparing to open a new chapter in energy trade with the world following an end to financial and trade embargos in early 2016.
Referring to an underdeveloped LNG plant with 10-million-ton-a-year production capacity, Zanganeh said trade restrictions limited the import of equipment and machinery to develop a project that requires a minimum of $4 billion for completion. He did not name the project.
"Two-thirds of natural gas exports worldwide are carried out via pipelines and the remainder in the form of LNG, but Iran has no interest in laying thousands of kilometers of expensive pipelines to supply gas to European markets," he said.
However, negotiations on LNG trade with several EU member-states are underway. In September, Zanganeh discussed LNG supply to Spanish terminals and from there to other European destinations.
Later that month, LNG exports were also discussed with a Polish delegation in Tehran.
GECF Summit
Hosting the Third Summit of Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Tehran next week is a positive signal to the world ahead of lifting the sanctions, Zanganeh said, adding that GECF member states are "diplomatically close" to the Persian Gulf country.
Doha hosted the First GECF Summit in 2011 and the second was held in the Russian capital Moscow in 2013.
The summit will bring together heads of state from nine countries, including Russia, Bolivia, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and Venezuela.
Established in Tehran in 2001, GECF is an intergovernmental organization of 11 of the world's leading natural gas producers, namely Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.
Iraq, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman and Peru have the status of observer members.
On Saturday, a convention of GECF ministers will discuss the global gas market and the position of GECF secretary-general, currently held by Iran's Mohammad Hossein Adeli.
A second meeting will be held later that day to draft a joint statement on issues such as the climate change and "Gas and Sustainable Development", the main theme of the summit, in the runup to the Paris climate conference on November 30.
Gas Deal With Pakistan
Zanganeh said a deal to export 25 million cubic meters of gas per day to Pakistan via the Iran-Pakistan Natural Gas Pipeline is a "good contract", but Islamabad has time and again delayed the laying of the pipeline in its own territory under the pretext of fearing the violation of the US-engineered sanctions.
"Iran is ready to supply up to 100 million cubic meters of gas a day to Pakistan," he said.
Tehran exports natural gas via pipelines to three neighboring countries, namely Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Ankara receives more than 90% of Iran’s gas exports under a long-term contract, and Yerevan and Baku receive around 6% and 3% of Iran’s natural gas exports, respectively, under swap agreements.
