National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed its first ever agreement with a European company for new oil and gas discoveries in Iran’s Salt Domes, Mehr News has reported.
The new exploration deal came after the surfacing of negotiations and correspondence between NIOC and Italy’s Eni SpA and Russia’s Lukoil, according to the Iranian news agency.
NIOC exploration director Hormoz Ghalavand said that exploration activities in the Salt Domes will be carried out by an international European company, whose name it did not reveal.
Ghalavand added that negotiations for technology transfer with the same European company have been made with the approval of NIOC’s board of directors.
In a separate interview Ghalavand said that negotiations with 18 international companies for the signing of oil and gas exploration and development contracts in 40 new exploration blocks.
In recent years Iran topped the charts for new oil and gas discoveries, according to the National Iranian Oil Company.
Currently, Iran has 157bn barrels of crude oil reserves and over 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves.
Previous estimates suggest that Iran can produce and export crude and natural gas for at least 50 and 80 years respectively, excluding any new discoveries.
In OPEC’s official report, Iran has been ranked third in the world after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for its oil and gas reserves.
European companies have shown great interest in new oil and gas discoveries in the Islamic republic, although no agreement was reached between Iran and P5+1 (the group of six world powers) over lifting sanctions on its hydrocarbon exports.
