Iran Economy NewsIran to woo oil companies with ‘sexy’ contracts, Total...

Iran to woo oil companies with ‘sexy’ contracts, Total CEO says

-

Bloomberg: Iran plans to offer oil companies improved terms to develop oil and natural gas fields once a trade embargo against the country is lifted, Total SA (FP) Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie said.

Bloomberg

By Tara Patel and Francine Lacqua 

Iran plans to offer oil companies improved terms to develop oil and natural gas fields once a trade embargo against the country is lifted, Total SA (FP) Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie said.

Contracts will be “more sexy than before,” De Margerie said today in an interview at Davos with Bloomberg TV. “They are definitely expecting the embargo to be lifted.”

Europe’s third-biggest oil company, which stopped work on Iran’s South Pars gas field in 2009 as the U.S. tightened sanctions, has “no specific right to restart” work on previous projects, he said. “Our project when we left was ended.”

Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s first leader in a decade to visit Davos for the World Economic Forum, needs deals to rescue an economy that shrank more than 5 percent last fiscal year under the weight of sanctions. Some will be lifted, along with capital controls, after a Nov. 24 deal in Geneva. Rouhani attended a meeting with energy executives including De Margerie yesterday.

Negotiations will continue on eliminating the trade sanctions in exchange for controls that ensure Iran’s nuclear program is limited to power generation.

“The message was as usual ‘We have plenty of oil and plenty of gas. We need your management skills, we need your technology. We don’t really need your money,’” according to De Margerie. “He said ‘We would like you to come back in our country, which is prepared to offer you new terms, new contractual terms’” in a few months.

Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

South Pars

Iran’s priorities include developing South Pars, where Total had worked to increase export capacity, and redeveloping old fields to enhance output, the French executive said.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency, an adviser to 28 nations, estimated on Jan. 21 that purchasers imported about 1.07 million barrels a day from Iran in 2013. Oil prices fell in late November after Iran reached a preliminary agreement.

“The fact that they are telling us to start moving, to get ready, should mean that they are ready to make moves on the political discussions,” De Margerie said. “Otherwise there is no reason for them to come to tell us to be ready.”

Any production from Iran would come after 2017, he said. 

Latest news

 Statistics show that New Year accidents’ deaths in Iran reached 585

Ahmad Shirani, the head of the Information and Traffic Control Center of the Iranian regime’s police, announced that the...

Land Subsidence in Critical Conditions in Isfahan

Mehdi Toghyani, a member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament), pointed to the occurrence of land subsidence in various...

Iran’s Actual Inflation Rate Higher Than Official Stats

The state-run Donya-e-eqtesad newspaper, in a report analyzing the "general sentiment" regarding inflation in 2023, has stated that households...

Iranian Workers’ Monthly $136 Wages Can’t Cover $500 Expenses

The lives of a significant portion of the Iranian population are marked by uncertainty, largely because the Iranian economy...

Iranian Nurses Earn Twice Their Wages in Ride-Hailing Services

Reza Aryanpour, a member of the regime’s Majlis (parliament) Health and Treatment Commission, highlighted the growing trend of nurses...

Iran: Unprecedented Record of 152 Million Liters of Gasoline Consumption Per Day

On March 19, Iran set a new historical record in gasoline consumption with 152 million liters consumed in one...

Must read

Iran leader appoints new Revolutionary Guards commissar

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Dec. 24 – Iran’s Supreme...

Delay on Iraq decision threatens smooth withdrawal

AP: Iraq's indecision on whether to ask American forces...

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you