Iran's oil industry is open to U.S.-based companies, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said in a press conference Saturday.
Iran
is not against the presence of the U.S. energy companies in the
country's oil industry, Zangeneh said at an event introducing of
new Iran Petroleum Contracts (IPC).
The new oil contract model
IPC aims to set up joint ventures for production of crude oil and
natural gas with international iil companies.
After the sanctions
on Iran are removed, Tehran hopes to attract investment from all over
the world for its domestic industry, especially into its energy sector,
by also introducing a new oil contract model, the IPC.
Iran, which
holds the second largest natural gas reserves and the fourth largest
oil resources in the world, aims to boost its energy market following a
July-deal with world powers to remove sanctions in return for curbing
its nuclear activities.
Iran and the world powers P5+1 group inked
a final nuclear deal on July 14 that envisages the curbing of Iran's
nuclear research program in return for the lifting of sanctions on the
country.
The U.S. and EU countries imposed a series of sanctions
on Iran in the last three years. By abiding with the nuclear deal, Iran
hopes to have the sanctions removed as soon as possible, to begin
foreign investment flow into the country in order to revive its
economy.
The IPC is expected to replace the obsolete buy-back model, and provide production-sharing to foreign oil companies.
In
Iran's current buy-back model, an international oil company provides
the investment, equipment and technology for a fixed price in exchange
of oil and gas it will produce from fields. Iran, through its national
oil company, gains operation rights of the field when the
company's contract expires.
In this model, the foreign oil
companies cannot own any shares in the hydrocarbon reserves of the
country; they can only receive a defined profit margin from what they
produce.
"We act according to our existing agreement and will
export the highest level of gas to the extent permitted by the deal. We
cannot send extra gas during winter because of high domestic
needs," Zangeneh said after a question about a potential increase in
Iran's natural gas export volume should Russia decrease its gas
exports to Turkey,
On Tuesday, two Turkish F-16 fighter jets on
an aerial patrol intercepted a Russian warplane within engagement
rules when it intruded into Turkish airspace on the Turkey-Syria border.
The intruding aircraft was warned about the violation 10 times within five minutes before it was shot down.
The
Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that its Russian SU-24 fighter jet
had been shot down. It crashed in the Syrian region of Bayirbucak close
to Yayladagi district of Turkey's southern Hatay province.
NATO confirmed the accuracy of information shared by Turkey about the violation.
It
was not the first time Russian fighter jets had violated Turkish
airspace. In early October, Russian warplanes breached Turkish airspace.
Russian officials apologized and pledged that no such incident would be
repeated. Turkey had also renewed its warning on engagement rules,
including a military response against violations of Turkish airspace.
(Anadolu Agency)