Iran Oil Majors Sign $6b Contracts With Local Firms: National Iranian South Oil Company and Iran Central Oil Fields Company, both subsidiaries of the National Iranian Oil Company, signed contracts with domestic oil and gas companies on Tuesday to develop nine oilfields.

According to Shana, the production, maintenance and enhancement agreements, worth $6 billion, include 33 projects to raise oil output by 300,000 barrels a day within three years.

Giving a breakdown earlier on the venture, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said 29 projects will be undertaken onshore and the rest offshore.

“The contracts will boost the morale of local companies as [the US] wants to cause anxiety and disappoint the Iranian people” by its open hostility and unending economic pressure tactics.

The projects will create jobs in southern and western provinces, namely Khuzestan, Bushehr, Fars, Hormozgan, Ilam and Kohkilouyeh and Boyer Ahmad.

NIOC will fund the projects to the tune of 80% — including via bond issuance — and contractors will put up 20%, he said. Some 30 trillion rials ($3 billion) worth of Islamic bonds (Sukuk) will be issued by March to fund the first phase of the projects.

Zanganeh said after the fields operate for a year and a half, operators would have to use their own funds to cover costs.

The deal is in line with the government plan to boost oil output from joint hydrocarbon deposits. Iran owns 145 oil and gas fields, of which 26 are shared with neighbors including Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan. Source: Financial Tribune