Total Eyes Return to Iran Oil, Gas Market
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Stephane Michel, Middle East president of Total’s exploration and production division, said the French company is eager to return to Iran’s oil and gas market following the recent nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers and the upcoming removal of anti-Iran sanctions.
“We are interested to come back to Iran when the sanctions are lifted and if the contracts are interesting,” Stephane Michel told Bloomberg on the sidelines of a major conference in Tehran on Saturday during which Iran unveiled 50 oil and gas projects worth $185 billion for development through foreign investment.
“We have worked in this country for a long time, so we know specific fields on which we’ve worked,” he added.
Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Lukoil PJSC are among international companies that have selected oil and natural gas deposits to develop in Iran as the holder of the world’s fourth-largest crude reserves presents $30 billion worth of projects to investors.
“Many companies are interested. Europeans are interested, Asian companies are interested,” Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters at the conference, adding that Total and Eni are among the firms willing to invest in Iran.
Representatives of 137 companies, including British Petroleum (BP), Italy’s Eni, Russia’s Gaz Prom, Gaz Prom Neft and Lukoil, Indian Oil Corporation, Denmark’s Maersk, Malaysia’s Petronas, France’s Total, and the UAE’s Shell EP International are present in the two-day conference in Tehran.
Besides the ongoing meeting, another conference is scheduled to be held in the British capital of London on February 22 to 24, 2016 to introduce Iran's attractive oil contract models to European investors.
Such conferences are to provide the perfect platform to discuss Iran’s re-entry to the global energy arena.
Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14 reached a conclusion over the text of a comprehensive 159-page deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.
The comprehensive nuclear deal between Iran and the six powers would terminate all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran after coming into force, and help the country return to the global market.
Experts believe that Iran’s economic growth would rise remarkably after the final nuclear deal takes effect.
