Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.11
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran sees no problem for international oil companies to return to the Iranian market, ILNA quoted Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh as saying on January 11.
We welcome the return of big oil firms, but those which are more capable will be preferred, Zanganeh added.
He referred to the U.S., Britain, France, Italy and Japan as the companies which are probable to return to Iran's oil market, adding, "We have no problem even for the return of China and Russia."
In December 2013, Iran named seven Western oil companies of Total of France, Royal Dutch Shell, Italy's ENI, Norway's Statoil, Britain's BP and U.S. companies Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips as the companies it wants back in its vast oil and gas fields if international sanctions are lifted.
Iran has the world's fourth-largest proved national reserves of oil - most of it cheap to produce. Iran is also home to the biggest proved reserves of natural gas, some 18 percent of the global total.
With nationalisation in the Islamic revolution of 1979, the oil companies were thrown out and Iran's share of world oil production fell to below 40 percent by 1997 from 55 percent in the 1970s. They drifted back in the 1990s, and Zanganeh oversaw that return as minister in a reformist government of 1997-2005.
Total moved back into onshore fields in 1997 and Shell in 1999, both while Zanganeh was minister, and both in defiance of U.S. sanctions. President Bill Clinton had blocked a Conoco project in 1995.
But Iran's production stagnated through the 2000s amid growing international tensions over its nuclear programme. The more effective sanctions instituted in 2012 have choked out foreign investment and sent output down to 2.65 million barrels a day in November from an average of 4.3 million in 2011.
Last month Iran reached an interim deal with six western powers to limit its nuclear programme, under which sanctions on oil investment and trade with Iran may be eased next year - although for now the agreement does not explicitly include a relaxation of the controls on Iranian oil sales.
Speaking to reporters at an OPEC meeting, Zanganeh said he was already talking with some companies, although so far not those from the United States.
"We had no limitations for U.S. companies. Twenty years ago there were limitations against them from their own administration. We have no limitations for doing projects in Iran," Zanganeh said.