NIOC releases first tender of oil project

EghtesadOnline: Deputy Minister of Petroleum and Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company Ali Kardor said on Monday that NIOC has released the first tender of oil project for the foreign executives.

News ID: ۷۳۷۵۴۵

18 October 2016

Kardor said that the projects are at the executive stage.

According to IRNA, he made the remarks in a statement to an oil and energy congress in Tehran.

Kardor said the tender has been published in Iranian and foreign newspapers and foreign applicants have to provide the NIOC with necessary information about their record as the oil executives in a matter of one month.

Elaborating on the procedure to select the foreign oil executive, he said that list of the applicants will be provided and the proposals will be examined to select the foreign executive to undertake the new oil contract.

'In order to apply the new oil contracts, Iranian companies should consider partnership with international companies and they should enter the stage with enough financial capability.'

'As per the new oil contracts, Iranian oil executives will operate in small and medium-sized fields as main leader of field development, while benefiting from cooperation of international companies. As for big fields, whose leadership rests with international companies, foreign firms will have to cooperate with Iranian companies,' he said.

Noting that international companies have welcomed cooperation with Iranian companies, Kardor said, 'For the time being, 11 E&P qualified companies are identified in Iran. They are not active in the field but should work in the context of the NIOC plans. Now, 88 plans, 515 projects and 2,000 miniature projects are on the NIOC agenda. Two contracts will be signed to include 4,000 miniature project.'

'Our contracts will focus on the outcome of the projects not on the physical progress in the field to the extent that in the future, payments will be made in proportion with the degree the goals are achieved.'

The NIOC director said that activation of the private sector in the mid-stream oil industry sector is the most important mechanism of the NIOC.

He said that based on the new strategies, the NGL and LNG projects will be fully entrusted to the private sector and to this end, the first contract for privatization of the NGL has been signed with a private sector active in the petrochemical industry.

Kardor said in the next month, the NGL 3100 will be entrusted to the private sector and Khark NGL will be privatized on an auction.

As for the Kharg NGL auction, he said investment in the project has partly been done by the NIOC and since it is in the halfway, a mechanism for auction to privatize the project is needed.

Hence, in the near future, three key NGL projects of the oil industry will be entrusted to the private sector and effective steps will be taken to prevent flaring associated gases to protect the environment, said Kardor, adding that the contracts for entrusting the LNG projects to the private sector will be long-term and 20-year in nature and gas will be sold in the first 10 years from the date the contract is in force based on a fixed formula.

'The NIOC will not mediate in development of the LNG units and even foreign companies can assume 100 percent role in the projects.'