Zanganeh Positive About 10 New Oil Deals by March

Fresh off a $5 billion gas deal with French energy major Total, Iran hopes to keep up the positive momentum and clinch new agreements to develop its oil and natural gas fields.

According to Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Tehran is poised to sign 10 new oil deals by the end of this fiscal year in March 2018.

"This is our assumption and we can't give an exact number. But we are engaged in serious negotiations that could lead to some 10 new oil deals by the yearend," Zanganeh was cited as saying by Shana on Monday.

The onshore Azadegan, Sohrab, Azar, Abteymour and Mansouri oilfields in southern and southwestern Iran as well as the oil layer of the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf are the ministry's top-priority projects.

"Negotiations are all going well and talks over one field do not adversely affect other projects," Zanganeh said.

In early July, Total became the first major oil company to effectively return to Iran's energy market after signing a milestone deal to develop Phase 11 of South Pars field in collaboration with a Chinese partner and a domestic enterprise.

"The general terms of the new deals have been finalized, but technical details for each field should be thrashed out respectively," the minister said.

Zanganeh said last week that Iran's first oil tender within the framework of Iran Petroleum Contract, the country's new model of contracts for oil and gas projects, would be completed in eight months, singling out Azadegan as the first of several dozen fields to be tendered.

According to reports, Royal Dutch Shell, Germany's Wintershall, Austria's OMV, Total, Italy's Eni, Denmark's Maersk, Pertamina, ONGC, Rosneft, China's CNPC and Sinopec, Petronas and Thailand's PTTEP have been approved for bidding in the Azadegan tender.

--- Mansouri Development

The National Iranian Oil Company is studying the technical surveys of Russia's Lukoil and Indonesia's Pertamina on Mansouri field, an oil deposit in the southern Khuzestan Province.

The findings include the reservoir characteristics, proposed development phases and various scenarios for production and increasing the recovery rate in Mansouri oilfield, the NIOC said in a statement on its official news portal on Monday.

The statement by Iran's state oil company can be interpreted as a signal that the two oil and gas majors stand a better chance of developing the oil deposit that holds over 3 billion barrels of crude in place.

State-owned Oil Industries Engineering and Construction Company and Tenco, a subsidiary of Khatam-al-Anbiya construction group, are also studying Abteymour and Mansouri fields. However, their comparatively less stellar profile and operational experience could hamper its chances for Mansouri project.

Production from Mansouri field is reportedly around 60,000 barrels per day at present, but NIOC's vision is to boost output to 100,000 bpd initially and to 150,000 barrels in the long run.

Pertamina has repeatedly voiced interest in two Iranian oilfields, Abteymour and Mansouri, and stepped up its pursuit of the fields' development rights in recent months.

In a statement this month, Elia Massa Manik, the chief executive officer of Pertamina, said his company can wind up winning the Mansouri and Abteymour contracts.

“The process of negotiations has been long … Indonesia needs to explore the oilfields to increase oil supply. Pertamina can help increase the output of the oilfields to 250,000 barrels per day," he said, Indonesia's Tempo.co news service reported.

Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil company, is equally confident of its future role in Iran's energy market.

Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov said in December the company would sign two oilfield agreements with Iran, namely Abteymour and Mansouri, in the fall of 2017.

Lukoil reopened its Tehran office in April last year and has been reportedly pushing for development rights of Iran’s Azar Oilfield following Tehran's nuclear deal with six world powers and its ensuing implementation in early 2016.