Iran has prepared new oil development plans, with an estimated cost of $14 billion, related to oilfields located in the Persian Gulf, the Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian Offshore Oil Company’s (IOOC) managing director Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh as saying.
“During the past two years, as much as $20 billion worth of deals have been signed,” he said, “Some $14 billion worth of new deals have been prepared and will be offered to contractors,” he added.
The deals are related to Farzad A & B, Soroush, Esfandyar, Tossan, and Alfa fields, Zirakchianzadeh noted.
In July, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said that the country’s oil output is projected to increase by 1.5 million bpd by 2016.
Qasemi announced that new oil reserves of up to 6 billion barrels have been discovered in southwestern Iran.
The reserves are located around the Yadavaran oilfield in Khuzestan Province.
With the new oil discovery, Iran’s oil reserves stand at about 160 billion barrels.
He also said that although the West has imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil sector with the goal of toppling the Islamic establishment, the country’s oil exports will never be halted because oil consuming countries need Iranian crude.
"There are many ways to easily sell oil, one of which is to take advantage of businessmen and the private sector," Qasemi said.
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.
U.S. sanctions entered into force on June 28, while EU bans on Iranian oil imports came into force on July 1.
