NIOC Sees Potential for 10 Oil, Gas Deals With Russia

Iran's National Iranian Oil Company and Russian companies are discussing their participation in the exploration of oil and gas fields in Iran. "NIOC has already signed enough memorandums of understanding with Russian companies and now we are waiting for signing contracts and starting the execution of projects. NIOC has signed MOUs with Lukoil, Rosneft, Zarubezhneft, Tatneft, Gazprom and Gazpromneft and we are negotiating for more than 10 oil and gas fields' development contracts," NIOC's deputy for exploration, Saleh Hendi, told Sputnik.

The NIOC representative pointed out that cooperation on both offshore and onshore fields was under consideration.

Hendi also presented a list of oilfields that are the subject of talks between Iran and Russian companies: Mansouri, Abteymour, Kish, Yaran, Maroon, South Pars oil layer, Kupal, Aban, Esfandiar, West Paydar, Dehloran, North Pars, Azar, Changuleh and Cheshmeh Khosh.

"Russian companies can allocate more shares of Iran oil and gas market by striking strategic alliances with European, Chinese and Southeastern Asian companies," he added.

"Since Iran has decided to use Russian companies’ capabilities, NIOC is … negotiating with other companies, and in the event these foreign companies and Iran win the contract, they will set up a partnership with Lukoil."

The official noted that technical negotiations with Lukoil on Mansouri and Abteymour oilfields had already been finalized.

"Technical negotiations have been finalized and Lukoil received NIOC comments and the final version of the proposal for the field development plan will be delivered. After this, legal and fiscal negotiations will begin," he said.

According to Hendi, NIOC told Russian oil companies that they should improve the terms of their proposals for Iranian oil and gas ventures. "We have not had a serious executive project with Russian companies in upstream sector so far, but regarding recent proposals and negotiations, unfortunately, it should be noted that the key indexes of proposals submitted by Russian companies are too conservative, less economic and too expensive," Hendi said.

"Iran's oil minister [Bijan Namdar Zanganeh] has informed the Russian energy minister [Alexander Novak] and Russian companies about the issues."

Iran actively reentered the global oil market since January 2016, when the European Union, the United Nations and the United States lifted their sanctions against Iran after the International Atomic Energy Agency verified Tehran’s compliance with the nuclear agreement reached in July 2015.