TEHRAN – Iran will finalize deals soon with France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Saras, securing the sale of 300,000 barrels of oil per day to the three European buyers, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said.

Iran's oil exports, which had peaked at more than 3 million bpd in 2011, fell to a little more than 1 million bpd after the sanctions were imposed on the country in 2012.

After the nuclear deal with world powers last year, however, Tehran has ordered a 500,000 bpd increase in oil output.

***** Total to finalize oil contract with Iran on Feb. 16

Iran’s contract with French oil giant Total will be executed as of February 16, the Shana news agency quoted Zanganeh as saying on Saturday.

Based on the contract, Zanganeh said, Total would buy 160,000 bpd of crude oil from Iran.

The minister stated that Total has also showed interest to participate in development of the South Azadegan oilfield and Iran LNG project.

South Azadegan is one of the five oilfields, dubbed the West Karoun oilfields, Iran shares with Iraq at the western part of Iran’s southwestern region of Karoun. 

Iran LNG is a project which is located at Tombak Port in southern Iran. The LNG plant consists of storage and loading facilities.

Zanganeh said, “Iran agreed to give the necessary information to Total, so that they would study the fields and propose their offers,” however, he added, no agreement has been made yet to assign the projects to the French oil giant.

*** ‘Eni, Saras to buy around 170,000 bpd’

The top official also said Italy's Eni was interested in buying 100,000 bpd of crude oil from Iran and its representatives would visit Tehran in near future to discuss the contract.

""Eni has also voiced its interest in development of one of Iran's oil fields concerning which we would make an agreement to give them the relevant information, like we did with Total,” Zanganeh stated.

He said Italian refiner Saras is also interested in buying 60,000 to 70,000 bpd of crude oil from Iran.

In November 2015, Iran introduced its new model of oil contracts, known as the Integrated Petroleum Contract (IPC).

The IPC will replace buy-back contracts. It is expected to offer more flexible terms on oil price fluctuations and investment risks to make the sector more financially attractive. 

The new contracts, which include those in the upstream exploration and development sectors are expected to attract more than $40 billion in foreign investment.

Iran has postponed a planned oil conference in London, which was due to have taken place in February to reveal its new contracts, until November.

SJ/MA/