Iran wants Turkish companies for energy projects

ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency

Iran is seeking to extend engagement with Turkish companies especially in upstream and downstream projects, a top Iranian energy official said on July 12.        

“We will welcome greater engagement by Turkish companies into Iranian upstream and downstream projects,” Amir Hossein Zamaninia, Iran’s petroleum for trade and international affairs deputy minister, told  state-run Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress.        

“Turkey is one of our customers. We have a long-term contract to supply oil to Turkey, which is going pretty well,” Zamaninia said.         

“Iran started to deliver 3 billion cubic meters [bcm] of gas per year to Turkey in 2001, and gas deliveries are expected to reach 10 bcm per year,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said, referring to the Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement signed with Iran in 1996. 

Zamaninia, meanwhile, said there were many common grounds for investment between Iran and Turkey.   

“We need to work together to find projects that suit both companies in Turkey and Iran, which have plenty,” he added.        

Zamaninia, at the congress in Istanbul, said he was already in contact with several Turkish companies but did not disclose any further details.    
    
“Turkish companies are into power generation, importation of gas and oil, and we want to encourage them to engage in upstream projects as well,” he said.        


Many areas in Iran still untapped  
             
Speaking about Iran’s hydrocarbon reserves, the Iranian official said the country’s production had not reached its maximum capacity yet.        

“Production is much less relatively speaking to the reserves that we have. Therefore, the cost of production in Iran is very low,” he added.  

Following the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for Iran’s nuclear program, the situation normalized to the extent that the country is engaging with both international and national oil companies.        
“We have about 27 negotiations ongoing for different upstream projects,” he said.   
     
Zamaninia shared that a contract with French energy giant Total was finalized within 18 months, explaining that this was “normal” for a major oil and gas contract.        

Iran signed a new contract in the beginning of July to develop “Phase 11” of the world’s largest gas field development project, the South Pars gas field, with the French oil company Total and China National Petroleum Corporation and Iranian company Petropars. 
     
“When it is finished in three years, it will add about 56 million cubic meters of gas to our production,” he said.     
 
“It is a 20-year contract and has two phases. The initial direct investment is somewhere close to $4.8 billion,” he added.      

He said Iran has “parallel negotiations with other companies that will come to an end in a few weeks.”        

“You will hear about other contracts that have been made,” Zamaninia said, but did not elaborate on the companies that could potentially participate.        

“I will not give names but I will tell you that as I said there are 26 negotiations [excluding Total] that are ongoing in parallel, all of the upstream projects and little by little they will come to conclusion as early as the end of August,” he said.        

Zamaninia said all negotiations that Iran has been engaging in contain an important technology transfer component including “technology transfer, management and investment.”        

Iran holds the world’s fourth largest proven crude oil reserves and second largest natural gas reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. However, the country’s oil and gas production was hampered in the past few years because of international sanctions.      
  
Iran aims to revive its oil and gas sectors in the aftermath of sanctions relief following the nuclear deal between Iran and P5 +1 countries signed in July last year.