Iran wants Japan back in energy projects

Iran says it is ready to negotiate with Japan over the return of the country’s enterprises to its oil projects as well as its upstream industries.

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh told reporters after a meeting with a visiting Japanese trade delegation that Iran expects a bright future in cooperation with Japan in all areas.

“[Economic] relations between the two countries were halted for a period due to the cruel sanctions,” Zangeneh said. “But with the removal of the sanctions, relations will see a perfect growth”.

The Iranian minister further emphasized that the Japanese companies can also invest in the development as well as the trade of Iranian liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“We had useful talks with Japan’s State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry [Daishiro Yamagiwa] as well as CEOs of Japanese companies,” Zangeneh said.

Yamagiwa arrived in Tehran on Saturday for a two-day visit to explore the avenues to promote trade ties between Iran and Japan. Executives from 21 companies, including oil, gas and automotive industries, are accompanying him

“We told Inpex and others that Tehran is ready to negotiate over their return to Iran’s energy projects”.

Inpex, Japan’s leading oil explorer, was the key investor in a project to develop Iran’s Azadegan oil field, but had to abandon the project in 2010 due to the US-engineered sanctions against the country.

The company had invested 12.5 billion yen ($153 million) in Azadegan which is known among industrialists as Iran’s biggest oil find in decades.

The field is located in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province and has an in-place reserve of 26 billion barrels and recoverable resources estimated at about 6 billion barrels.