Iran has signed seven new preliminary agreements with foreign oil companies, said managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
According to Shana, Ali Kardor listed Austria's OMV, France's Total, Germany's Wintershall , Indonesia's Pertamina, Russia's Lukoil and Zarubezhneft as among the companies which have signed deals with Iran.
Iran needs foreign investment to restore and upgrade its oil and gas fields and is also seeking the transfer of technology to its oil industry after a decade of sanctions.
Many Western and Asian oil firms are still waiting for Tehran to unveil its new model for oil and gas contracts (IPCs).
On Saturday, Abdolmohammad Delparish, NIOC's deputy managing director for corporate planning affairs said upstream oil and gas sectors require $100 billion in investment to meet the objectives of the Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2016-21).
The official further said that progress of the Sixth Plan is contingent upon the materialization of the objectives of oil industry development.
"As you know, one of the main objectives of the Sixth Plan is to achieve economic growth of eight percent, and based on this target, the Oil Ministry should attain a nine-percent growth. NIOC is in charge of the major part of responsibilities to meet the growth objective," Delparish stated.
The official further announced that the daily oil, gas and gas condensate productions are projected to reach 4.5 million barrels, 1.3 billion cubic meters and 950,000 barrels respectively, according to the Sixth Plan.
He listed some of the programs of NIOC to achieve the objectives of the Sixth Plan as completing all first development phases of West Karoun oilfields (five oilfields in the western part of Iran's southwestern region of Karoun, straddling the borders with Iraq), and also South Pars Gas Field (which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf), and starting the second phases of development as well as making definite decision on all other joint fields.
Currently, about 30 million cubic meters of flare gases are burned each day, the official said pointing to the recovery of flare gases as one of the other programs of pursued by his company during the Sixth Plan.
He announced that 130 drilling rigs will be applied by NIOC in the discovery and production projects during the plan period.
NIOC plans to implement 30-35 development projects on average each year during the Sixth Plan, Delparish concluded.
