Oil Ministry hopes to sign at least $10 billion worth of energy deals by April 2017 as it launches new Iran Petroleum Contract

The state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) called on international oil companies to participate in a pre-qualification process for new upstream tenders it plans to launch. NIOC plans several rounds of tenders for exploration and production of oil and gas projects, the Oil Ministry news service Shana stated.

The Oil Ministry said it hopes to sign at least $10 billion worth of energy deals by April 2017 as it launches the new Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC), which replaces a buy-back model contract. The IPC was approved in September after much wrangling within the Iranian political hierarchy.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was opposed to the IPC, which its leaders said would threaten the elite unit’s extensive economic interests. Brigadier-General Ebadollah Abdollahi, head of the IRGC’s industrial conglomerate Khatam al-Anbiya, said: “No one is against foreigners coming. We can have some cooperation with them.”

Khatam al-Anbiya, Iran’s largest industrial contractor, opposed plans by the Oil Ministry to put international firms in charge of major projects.

Abdollahi said the IRGC was “ready to cooperate with foreign investors, provided that the engineering and implementations be undertaken by Iranians”....

The return of international oil companies to Iran would encroach on the IRGC’s economic interests.

“The government is in need of much cash to finance development projects. Oil rent is the most important such source that is available to Iran,” First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri said during a mid-October industry conference in Tehran...

Since the lifting of international sanctions last January, six agreements have been signed: Denmark’s Haldor Topsoe for licensing and engineering equipment for a methanol plant; Total, for an ethane cracker feasibility study; South Africa’s PetroSA for gas-to-liquids (GTL) research cooperation; Germany’s Linde for olefin feed; British-Dutch Shell for ethane and GTL feasibility study; and Japan’s Sojitz Corporation for a methanol to propylene plant feasibi