Official: Iran Planning to Attract $20bln to Oil, Gas Development Projects http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9001271350

A senior Iranian oil official announced that the country is in talks with foreign firms and companies to funnel a huge sum of foreign investment into the development of its oil and gas fields. "We are in talks with many foreign companies to attract $20 bln of investment," Managing-Director of the National Iranian Offshore Oil Company (NIOOC) Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh said in a news conference on the sidelines of the 16th Oil, Gas, Refining and Petrochemicals Exhibition here in Tehran on Saturday. "A major part of this figure will be allocated to the development of gas fields and boosting our gas production volume to 10 billion cubic feet," he added. 

The official further mentioned that Iran has specific plans for developing its shared onshore and offshore oil and gas fields, and added, "We plan to make $8bln of investment in shared fields." Zirakchianzadeh also announced that the country's production capacity in shared fields has increased by 20% during the last Iranian year (ended on March 20).In December, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) inked a deal with a South Korean company on the development of phases 17 and 18 of the giant gas field. Late in December, Iran announced that it plans to invest billions of dollars to develop two major phases of the South Pars gas field. The Iranian government has agreed to invest an additional $1.5 billion in developing phases 9 and 10 of South Pars gas filed. The investment in the two phases will reach $4.149 billion from the current $2.597 billion, resulting from a recent ratification by the government. When all phases of the South Pars field become operational, the annual revenue of the field will soar to $100 billion, raising Iran's gas output to 1.1 billion cubic meters per day.