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Secretary of Iran National Committee at the World Petroleum Council (WPC) Mohammad Ali Emadi said major Iranian companies involved in the fields of oil exploration and production will take part in the event.

"The congress provides an opportunity to present investment and cooperation packages to international majors active in various oil and gas sectors," he said.

Emadi further said addressing specialized forums by senior Iranian oil industry officials, sharing industrial experiences and achievements with the congress participants and presentation of expert papers will be undertaken by Iran's representatives at the three-day event.

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The MoU, which involves the constructing Qom–Arak high speed railway line in Iran, is to be signed in Tehran on July 11.

Ferrovie Chief Executive Officer Renato Mazzoncini and IRIR Managing Director Saeid Mohammadzadeh will sign the agreement, which includes building the infrastructure as well as supplying high speed trains for Iran.

The Italian company will also be responsible for holding technical courses for IRIR personnel.

The two sides had signed an initial agreement in this respect in April 2017.

Italy was the first trade partner of Iran among the European Union member states, during the first three months of 2017, according to European Union's statistics agency, Eurostat.

Trade between Iran and Italy in the said period reached €1.2 billion, with €800 million pertaining to Iran's exports to Italy and €400 million to its imports from that country.

Italy was the first trade partner of Iran while France and Germany came second and third respectively.

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The announcement was made by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble in a meeting with the visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Presstv.com wrote.

Schäuble said Berlin was committed to the implementation of a nuclear deal with Iran that was sealed in 2015 and came into effect in early 2016.

He also told Zarif that German banks were trying to find ways to promote cooperation with their Iranian counterparts.   

Zarif arrived in Berlin on Monday for talks with German officials on issues of mutual concern.

He is expected to meet German President Walter Steinmeier as well as Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel.

Germany is Iran’s largest trade partner in Europe.

Official figures released last year showed that the value of trade between the two countries stands at around €3 billion, but officials in both sides have already voiced optimism that this could increase in the near future.

The nuclear that Iran signed with Germany together with the five permanent members of the Security Council – the US, Britain, France, Russia and China – envisages the removal of certain economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

However, companies are complaining that banking problems mainly remaining from US primary sanctions are still obstructing business with Iran.

Last October, Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi announced that it was looking into the possibility of using the facilities of German financial institutions to press ahead its purchases of planes from global aviation giants like Boeing and Airbus.

This was expected to break the ice for the banks that have been reluctant to approach Iran investment prospects over fears that they would fall afoul of US sanctions.

Iran later finalized the agreements with Boeing and Airbus and several planes were delivered to the country with many more in the offing.

It was never announced whether German banks had facilitated the plane purchase deals, but chances that this had been the case are high when considering Akhoundi’s remarks.

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Speaking during a meeting with an Austrian delegation in Tehran, Mohammadreza Nematzadeh said the agreement is part of a bilateral cooperation accord which was reached a year ago.

He added that the two sides have embarked on a project to draw up plans for producing the engine of these cars.

The minister said a plant has been set up in the city of Qazvin for mass manufacturing of the fuel-efficient cars estimating that the production of the three-cylinder vehicles will begin in the next two years.

Nematzadeh noted that Iranian auto companies are in talks with their Austrian counterparts for supplying spare parts.

The minister said contracts with countries such as Austria will contribute to promote Iran's auto industry.

He said such agreements are among the achievements of the Iran nuclear deal which was signed in July 2015.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China — plus Germany started implementing the accord known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on January 16, 2016.

Since then a large number of international auto companies have expressed willingness to either resume or boost cooperation with the Islamic Republic.

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Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian inaugurated the hydropower plant at Roodbar Dam, in Aligoudarz, in the western province of Lorestan.

He said that with the inauguration of the plant, the country's total hydropower generation capacity will reach 11,804 MW.

Highlighting the ministry's policy to diversify energy sources and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, Chitchian said good progress has been made in developing renewable energies by establishing hydropower and solar power plants.

Last month, Iran opened its largest solar plant in an area of 20 hectares near the central city of Isfahan. The plant, developed in cooperation with a Greek company, can generate 10 megawatts of electricity annually.

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According to the official, Iran and Portugal are more than hopeful about the future cooperation. "At the moment, there is an Iranian investment in the port of Sines to commercialize LPG shipments. It is part of market dynamics. And specifically, they are focusing on infrastructures to distribute LPG in African market," he said.

Coming to natural gas deal between Iran and EU, Eiras said that he is optimistic about Iran–Europe gas relations. "For what I know, if there is will and investment capacity, this will lead to other cooperation as well," he said.

Iran is expanding its LPG and gas condensate markets due to output growth in South Pars. Iran increased hydrocarbons production capacity from South Pars by nine percent during the last fiscal year. Daily gas output from the field currently stands at 500 million cubic meters (mcm/d), gas condensate at 560,000 barrels per day and LPG (butane and propane) at about 25,000 tons.

Iran's LPG production was 5.6 million tons per year in 2014 and reached about nine million tons in early 2017.

During the last fiscal year (ended March 20), Iran exported propane valued at $1.222 billion at $350/tons as well as butane worth $772 million at $377/tons.

Iran also has announced repeatedly about its willingness to export natural gas (methane) to Europe via pipeline or LNG. Iran has a semi-finished LNG plant, suspended mid-2000s due to sanctions, but hasn't re-launched the plant yet. The capacity of the project is 10.4 million tons of LNG per year. The cost of the project was $2.5 billion but it requires a further $5.5b-$9.5b for completion.

Iran will also have to construct a $6-billion 1,800-km pipeline stretching from South Pars to the border with Turkey. Then it may be able to supply gas to the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline, connected to Trans Adriatic Pipeline in Europe in case the shareholders of projects give the green light.

Both pipelines are Turkish-European part of Southern Gas Corridor, aimed to transit 16 bcm/year of Azerbaijani gas from Shah Deniz to Turkey and Europe in 2018 and 2021 respectively. The final capacity of the project is 31 bcm/year.

Iran's gross gas output stands at 285bn m3/yr. However, it plans to raise this to about 440 bcm/year by 2021 following the full operational of South Pars and the start of gas production from other projects such as Kish gas field.

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The Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (IRIR) is proceeding with business negotiations with a number of European companies on leasing train cars, which are mostly new and are expected to be delivered by August, said Mohammad Rajabi, a top IRIR official, Tasnim News Agency reported.

He put the number of the cars at 50 and said one of the companies Iran is negotiating with is a German-Chinese firm. He pointed out that the cars were manufactured in Germany.

Iran has decided to lease train cars because receiving cars that are ordered for purchase is a lengthy process, Rajabi added.

Last month, Iran and Transmashholding, Russia's largest company on the railway machine-building market, finalized a memorandum of understanding to boost cooperation in the production of railroad cars.

Iran has ramped up efforts to renovate its aging railroad industry by attracting foreign investment in light of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a nuclear agreement between Tehran and the P5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) that went into effect in January 2016.

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Some 11 petrochemical projects are scheduled to go on stream this year, of which five have so far been implemented, National Iranian Petrochemical Company reported.

With the completion of the six other projects, total production capacity of the petrochemical industry will reach 59 million tons.

The value of petrochemical sales will also exceed $17 billion, of which 67 percent and 33 percent will pertain to exports and domestic sales respectively.

Some 50.6 million tons of petrochemicals were produced in the year to March 20, 2016 when production capacity stood at 61.9 million tons. Exports of petrochemical products during this period generated $9.5 billion.

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According to TASS, cheap resources remain an attractive asset even in the absence of clearly spelled conditions of cooperation, they said.

The new phase of interaction between Iran and foreign investors started after the lifting of sanctions. However, certain foreign investors, such as Total, Eni, OMV and Lukoil, said they will return only after the improvement of terms of the buyback service contract used in Iran before the sanctions.

The concept of a new contract, known as the Iranian Petroleum Contract (IPC), was already developed but its launch has repeatedly been delayed.

Experts contend that the IPC indeed appears a more attractive contract as distinct from the traditional production buyback scheme.

"The buybacks and the IPC are both service contracts: Contracts in which the contractor brings capital and operates the field. In exchange, it receives its costs back and remuneration. The main advantages of the IPC appear to be higher flexibility, longer length, and similarities with a classic Production Sharing Contract (PSC)," said Wood Mackenzie's Senior Analyst Middle East and North Africa Homayoun Falakshahi.

"Foreign companies will now be able to enter into joint ventures with Iranian companies. Remuneration of investors has been increased; it is finally depending on the oil price in the new scheme," head of Skolkovo Energy Center Tatiana Mitrova said.

Conditions of the new Iranian contract may be similar to those used for West Qurna 2 project operated by Russia's Lukoil in Iraq, Fitch analyst Maxim Edelson said.

Experts explain the interest of Russian companies in the Middle East oil as "the cheapest resource base in the world" held by Iran. Furthermore, the most interesting resources in Russia have already been distributed.

"Our opportunities to grant licenses to companies are highly limited in recent years and it is natural they are looking for options overseas," Sberbank CIB analyst Valery Nesterov said.

It will take years for Russian companies to develop Iranian projects, experts say. "It is difficult to say something specific about when Russian companies might be able to start production. But if what happened historically in Iraq could be viewed as an analogy, the West-Qurna-2 field in Iraq to it was put on stream around four years after Lukoil won the tender to develop the field," Norwegian-based Rystad Energy said.

"1½-2 years will be needed in Iran," department head in the Kazan Federal University Vladislav Zatsepin said.

"Russian companies' key advantage over Europeans is good political relations between Tehran and Moscow, having improved a lot over recent years," Falakshahi said.

At the same time, Russian majors do not enjoy the expertise or access to finance as international oil companies do, he added.

Lastly, Russia is not a consumer of Iranian oil like China, for example. "Asian companies could lean on their position and present themselves as a long-term partner for Iran, both from an upstream and a marketing point of view. Russian companies will not be able to compete on this point," Falakshahi said.

However, this issue can be settled in the near future through talks resumed by Russia and Iran on the restart of the 'Oil for Goods Program', with Russia to purchase up to 100,000 barrels of Iranian oil daily within its framework. The relevant agreement can be signed already this year, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said earlier.

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