TEHRAN, Aug 22 (Shana) � Member of the Oil Committee of the Parliament Energy Committee, Jalal Mirzaie, says Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh�s enlightening parliament briefing resulted in a growing number of MPs welcoming the new model of oil contracts.

Mirzaie made the remark in an interview with Shana as Minister of Petroleum, Bijan Zanganeh, briefed the parliament closed-door session on Sunday about the new model of oil and gas contract, which will replace the former buy-back based contract.

Mirzaie said he believed Zanganeh had provided the Parliament with a comprehensive explanation on the contracts as he managed to provide a general framework of the oil industry.

He said to develop and preserve complementary industries, the country needs increasing oil and gas production because the two items are feedstock for complementary industries.

He added that the parliament briefing on the new model of oil contracts was constructive. �Some colleagues held negative attitude towards the contract formerly, but following Petroleum Minister�s explanations today, the part of opponents, to whom I talked to, had no problem with the outlines of the contract framework.�

He said exploitation of the joint oil and gas fields should be given the priority in new methods of capital attraction.

He added that expediting investment in the projects for development of the oil industry and the programs to maintain production are necessary because such a country like Iraq produces more than four million barrels of oil a day but our production is less than the figure, so we need to raise the production.

By SHANA