In a live IRIB program on Sunday evening, Bijan Zanganeh who was reappointed as head of Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum, appreciated the trust given to him by Members of the Parliament expressing hope that missions assigned by the President will be carried out properly in the coming four years.
He classified his career into short-term and four-year plans saying “first and foremost, the oil contracts will be dealt with in a bid to attract foreign finance and know-how both for developing joint fields and boosting recovery in existing fields.
He noted that enhanced production entailed recycling whose current figure stands at 30% and needs to rise. “A number of ongoing negotiations with international oil companies over development of Iranian fields need to reach conclusion within months in both technical and financial respects.”
Zanganeh underlined that joint fields were the top priority for his ministry and made commitments to accelerate unfinished projects like expansion of South Pars, completion of an LNG export unit, supplying gas to small towns and villages, promotion of petrochemical output in partnership with the private sector, gas flaring reduction to avoid insurmountable environmental damages.
The official later highlighted that any sort of investment had to lead to creation of employment opportunities inside the country. “Moreover, oil industry facilities need to be renovated and modernized given that some facilities date back to 70 years ago and need a complete overhaul.”
On talks with the Qatari side, Iran’s oil minister noted that the Arab side has taken certain measures though Iran is taking the lead in recovering gas from South Pars joint gas field. He went on to emphasized the need for huge investment in upstream and downstream sectors of the country’s oil industry while clarifying that 60 to 70 percent of the amount has to be supplied through foreign finance.
Referring to ongoing talks with oil firms, he stated that international bodies are eager to make investments in Iranian oil fields as Russian and Indonesian companies have already conducted projects in Mansouri field. Oil minister also touched upon the plans to boost recovery factor saying the output figure for Azadegan field will exceed 300 thousand barrels by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (to end March 20, 2018).
On constructing gas pipelines to Pakistan and Iraq, Zanganeh said the project has been already launched in Iraqi side though Pakistan is playing delaying tactics despite the fact that billions of dollars have been spent so far on the pipeline project.
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