Azerbaijan, Baku, Apr.24/ Trend F.Karimov/
The Iranian parliament (Majlis) has approved the issuing of $20 billion in bonds to finance oil and gas projects in the current Iranian calendar year which began on March 21, the Fars News Agency reported.
The Iranian Oil Ministry and the Central Bank have each been authorised to issue $10 billion worth of bonds. A priority for investment will be attached to joint oil and gas fields.
In July 2012, Oil Ministry official Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr said the Central Bank of Iran had opened a $10 billion line of credit for a number of national oil projects in the upstream sector.
The projects have a number of sources of finance such as access to 18 per cent of the assets of the National Development Fund and the funds acquired through the issuance of $10 billion in foreign currency bonds, the issuance of 15 trillion rials in other bonds and the sale of $10 billion of shares and properties of the Oil Ministry, Khojasteh-Mehr told the Shana News Agency.
Meanwhile, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi has said that global economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic would not hinder the development of the country's oil industry.
The Oil Ministry is committed to accelerating the implementation of its development plans financed through the financial system and government bonds, he said.
Iran ranks fourth worldwide with 155 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Canada.
With 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, Iran has the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia.
