TEHRAN (SHANA)--Irans Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Saturday that the country has to raise its oil and gas production.Iran, as the second holder of oil reserves and the first holder of gas reserves [in the world], has to gain consistent shares of the oil and gas markets in the world, Zanganeh told the opening of a two-day seminar on new oil contracts.
At present, national determination has taken shape for that purpose with the modification of oil contracts.
The minister said that buy-back contracts managed to raise Irans oil and gas production capacities by attracting foreign investment over the past 18 years.
But today, the conditions of the world markets with regards to petroleum industry have significantly changed since 1990. Therefore, we have to study the positive and negative points of buy-back contracts in order to attract capital and state-of-the-art technology, he said.
Zanganeh said the reason for the attractiveness of buy-backs in the 1990s was that oil was supplied on the market at 15 to 20 dollars a barrel.
He said the oil price hikes, development of shale reserves and the creation of opportunities for investment in Iraq necessitate changes in Irans oil contracts.
In the buy-backs, foreign companies could not be present in the stage of exploration and enhanced recovery from mature reservoirs. Therefore, these flaws have been removed in the new model of Iranian oil contracts, the minister said.
Zanganeh said the new oil contracts must be so that they will encourage foreign companies to invest in different oil and gas-rich provinces and regions in the country.
By SHANA
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