Iran eyeing key oil deals after Rouhani re-election

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh says the country expects to see a boost in foreign investment in its oil sector projects after the re-election of President Hassan Rouhani last week. 

Zanganeh told Reuters in an interview that Iran specifically expected to sign investment agreements with global energy giants such as France’s Total, Russia’s Lukoil, Denmark’s Maersk and Indonesia’s Pertamina.

He emphasized that the new agreements could increase Iran’s overall oil production capacity by around a quarter before 2022.

The development of new fields as well as improved oil recovery from mature reservoirs should allow Iran, OPEC’s No.3 oil producer, to have the capacity to pump 5 million barrels per day (mb/d), or 5 percent of global crude, versus 4 million bpd now, Reuters reported.

Gas condensate output capacity should increase to 1 million bpd from about 600,000 bpd now.

“One important step was the election, because in this election Iranian people said ‘yes’ to positive interaction with the world,” Zanganeh said in Vienna after a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

“I hope this message will be understood positively … It is not the time to trigger actions against Iran,” he said.

“It (the election) is a very clear message to the world. More than 60-65 percent of Iran’s young people, middle-class people, university students, sent this message. I hope the world receives it positively.”

The Iranian minister further emphasized that the rise in Iran’s production capacity should not derail cooperation with OPEC, which on Thursday asked its members to curb output for another nine months to fight a global oil glut.

“All OPEC decisions are short-term decisions. Production capacity is part of our long-term plans,” he said.