In his presentation to parliament prior to his latest vote of confidence in early August, Zanganehoutlined the following plansfor the non-gas subsectors in the next four years:
- Development of shared oil fields.
- Signing of new contracts with the goal of developing shared fields and increasing the rate of recovery from the countrys oil basins using the latest technologies and foreign investment in order to generate employment.
- Increasing the production capacity of oil with the goal of surging or at least maintaining Irans share of the global trade and improving Irans position in OPEC with the goal of empowering Iran economically, politically and securitywise.
- Renovating the old and degenerated segments of the oil industry.
- Constructing an oil terminal in the Sea of Oman.
- Completing the value chain in the petrochemical sector.
- Shifting away from exporting crude oil and emphasizing the export of petroleum products.
- Technological promotion in theoil sectorand completion of the projects for local manufacturing of equipment.
This is an ambitious list for a four-year term, but the Iranian government will certainly manage to pursue and materialize some of these goals. Some of the objectives are driven by political stakeholders (such as the focus on shared fields), some by security considerations (such as the oil terminal in the Sea of Oman) and others by technocrats (such as the introduction of the latest technologies). At the same time, the core challenge in achieving all of the listed targets will be to attract the needed foreign investment and technology. There is no doubt that thesigning of the dealwith the French Total-led consortium has generated a momentum in the interest of international oil companies (IOCs) to engage the Iranian market.
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