East Asia Firms Briefed on New-Style Contracts

A workshop was held in Tehran to brief E&P companies from East Asian countries about the new model of oil contracts in Iran.

It was the second such workshop after the first one was held to brief Russian companies.

This time, representatives of companies from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and Thailand attended the event.

“Companies operating in exploration and production in East Asian countries were willing to be informed of the framework of new model of our oil contract in such workshop,” Gholam-Reza Manouchehri, deputy head of National Iranian Oil Company for development and engineering, said.

During the workshop, Manouchehri explained about advantages of investment in Iran after the removal of sanctions.

In November, a 35-member delegation of Russian energy companies, including Lukoil, Gazprom, Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, Zarubezhneft and Tatneft, got a first-hand glimpse of IPC in a one-day presentation in Tehran.

NIOC recently approved 29 foreign companies for bidding in several dozen oil and gas tenders.

The list consisted of several Asian corporations, including China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Sinopec Group, Indonesia's state oil and gas company Pertamina, Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation, Inpex, Japan Petroleum Exploration, Mitsui Group and Itochu Corporation, as well as Posco Daewoo and Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) and Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP).

Iran, Iraq Eye Oil Deals

Tehran and Baghdad are in talks to conclude deals on developing two joint oilfields, a senior Iranian official has said.

Deputy Minister of Petroleum for International Affairs and Trading Amir-Hossein Zamani-Nia said that during his recent visit to neighboring Iraq, the two sides discussed avenues for establishing ties in the oil sector and cooperating in the development of jointly oil fields.

The delegation, which was led by Zamani-Nia, included representatives of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Iranian Oil Pipeline and Telecommunication Company (IOPTC).

One of the deals will pertain to the development of joint oilfields: Parviz and Khorramshahr, said Zamani-Nia.

The other memorandum of understanding (MoU), he said, will be on cooperation in other oil-related areas such as manufacture of items, gas export and renovation of Iraqi refineries by Iranian private contractors. He said it will pertain to Abadan-Basra crude oil pipeline.

Iran, he noted, is now ready to export gas to Iraq and Baghdad is also ready for to receive the fuel.

He said the gas export pipeline to Iraq from Iran is now filled with gas but the required L/Cs for sending the item to Iraq is not ready yet. "Gas flow to Iraq will begin as soon as financial issues are resolved."

He said the L/C will open parallel with the Iraqi delegation's visit to Tehran in the near future.

Zamani-Nia also said that Iran’s Mohammad Mousavi and Iraq’s Jabbar Qasim are to represent the two countries as members of Iran-Iraq joint committee.

Persian Gulf Star Refinery Sells 1st Naphtha Consignment

Iran has sold its first consignment of naphtha produced at the Persian Gulf Star Refinery to the UAE as the countdown nears for the operation of the world’s largest condensate refinery.

The cargo of 280,000 barrels of naphtha was delivered to the Emiratis recently, with the second shipment being loaded for export.

There is already a strong demand in Asia for naphtha which is used to produce products such as ethylene and propylene, the building blocks of plastics. Strong economic growth in countries such as India is expected to generate fresh interest in the product.

The exports mark a turning point in the imminent operation of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery.

The 360,000-barrel-a-day refinery, being built with 3.5 billion euros ($4.7 billion) of investment, is set to turn Iran into a net gasoline exporter.

It will produce around 36 million liters a day of gasoline, with its first phase expected to come online at a capacity to process 12 million liters which will make the country self-sufficient for gasoline. The remaining two phases are projected to start operation by the end of 2017.

The Persian Gulf Star refinery is the most important refining project in Iran, meant to process the condensate from South Pars in Assaluyeh. Condensate is some sort of light crude oil produced in association with natural gas.