Even after the lifting of international sanctions of Iran, an internal struggle continues in the Islamic Republic between conservative factions and President Hassan Rouhani’s administration.
On Saturday, student protestors aligned with the Basij, a hardline militia formed to uphold the principles of the Islamic Republic, protested outside Iran’s Oil Ministry, saying the terms of the new Iranian Petroleum Contracts (IPCs) gives too much to international oil companies (IOCs), media reports said.
The controversy over the IPCs stems from language in the Iranian Constitution, which prohibits privatisation or foreign ownership of the exploration and production sections of the oil industry.
The IPCs require that any IOC working in Iran must form a joint venture with an Iranian partner, typically the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), with the Iranian party acting as the owner and supervising the planning and operations.
While the new contracts would not technically allow foreign companies to own Iranian natural resource reserves, some have interpreted the IPCs as circumventing the prohibition in the constitution.
