TEHRAN The Oil Ministry of Iran will certainly follow up the recent allegations concerning the financial corruption regarding buyback oil and gas agreements, Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said here yesterday during the press release.

The charges against Oil Ministry can not be ignored, said the minister of oil adding that the ministry welcomes any type of criticisms and discussion on buyback contracts and then he expressed regret over the indictment.

In response to the question put by the TEHRAN TIMES regarding the recent not so transparent agreements signed with multiple international consortia and the threat they could pose for the constitutional principle of oil resources being nationalization, Zangeneh said, "All of the buyback contracts are profitable and have no disadvantages for our country's national capital."

Iranian oil minister added that the contracts signed by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) with foreign executives have passed legal channels before being finalized. He did not explain why the Oil Ministry has only recently agreed to provide the details to the Majlis speaker.

He said that a committee comprising of representatives of the president, the Management and Planning Organization (MPO) and several deputy ministers study the contracts National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signs with foreign partners.

The technical and economic justification for the projects, he pointed out, is approved by the high economic council and the ceiling for the total contracts to be signed each year are determined by the Parliament.

Zangeneh said that certain countries which regard Iran as their monopoly' have launched speculations against contracts NIOC has signed with foreign partners.

He said that the Oil Ministry will take legal action against those accusing NIOC officials of taking commission from foreign companies with which the NIOC concluded buyback contracts.

He said that the contracts the NIOC has signed with foreign executives mainly focused on the common oil and gas fields under which 3.5 billion barrels of gas liquids, 2,300 billion cubic meters of natural gas, 100 million tons of liquefied gas and 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil will be produced in 30 years.

The minister said that the major part of the plan to develop the common oil and gas fields has been included in the buyback contracts signed with foreign partners except for the oil stratum of south pars oil field.

He said that the contracts had already been put on tender and the projects have been ceded to those who won the tender except for phases one, two and three of south pars oil and gas field.

Zangeneh said that the Oil Ministry has signed 11 contracts with foreign companies on exploration and research studies and has reservations about announcing the interest rate in the buyback contracts. He said in the meantime that the interest rate has gradually decreased in the past four years.

He said that some people criticize why the term of the buyback contracts are short. The buyback contracts have been signed in short terms to save payment of interest rate, he said.

The minster failed to provide a reasonable answer to TEHRAN TIMES' second question regarding the persistent dependence of the country on imported petrochemical products despite numerous earlier promises of becoming self-sufficient in this field. He simply replied "We still needed to import."

He said that the NIOC has set up Petropars Company to carry out the phases one, six, seven and eight of south pars gas field and help domestic engineers promote their technical expertise.

Zangeneh said Petropars has undertaken a $3.5 billion contract to develop South Pars gas field adding that 40 percent of Petropars shares belongs to the special fund future builders' affiliated to the Iranian Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) and 60 percent of the shares belongs to the retirement fund of the Oil Ministry.

Asked about his talks with Norwegian oil minister last Monday, he said his negotiations with Norwegian officials focused on sharing experience with Norway on how to boost the coefficient in recycling the oil wells.

Commenting on the OPEC meeting last week in Vienna, he said that OPEC is monitoring the developments in the oil market and is determined to respect the quota allocated to each member.

He hoped that OPEC can preserve the current stability in the oil market serving the interests of both consumers and producers.