Eni holds talks in Tehran on return to Iran’s oil field

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

Foreign energy giants are visiting the Islamic Republic to discover opportunities from cooperation once the sanctions on Tehran are lifted under the recent P5+1-Iran nuclear deal.

The companies, operating in the oil and gas field, have been long awaiting their return to the vast Iranian market. The nuclear agreement has paved the way to restore their activities in the Islamic Republic and take evengreater benefits from operations in this new market.

Eni’s Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi visited Tehran to discuss new opportunities for the Italian energy company in Iran, Press TV reported.

During the talks with Iran’s Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh on August 5, the sides were expected to focus on the resumption of oil purchases from Iran and Eni’s return to the Darkhovin oilfield in the country’s southwest.

Eni, which is seen as one of the largest energy groups of Europe,signed a $1.5 billion deal for development of Phase III of Iran's Darkhovin oil field in May 2009. In 2010, the company announced that it would cease operations on the Darkhovin field due to sanctions.

It had signed a $550 million deal to produce 160,000 barrels per day of oil from the field in two phases.

It also had a stake in the development of Doroud oilfield on KharkIsland and the Balal oilfield in the Persian Gulf.

Eni is reportedly vying for the third phase of the project to add a further 100,000 bpd of output from Darkhovin.

Descalzi visited Tehran along with Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni and Economic Development Minister Federica Guidi as part of a delegation to discuss trade and political cooperation following the successful conclusion of nuclear talks.

Managing Director of Petroleum Engineering and Development Company Abdorreza Hosseinnejad has said Iran was open to negotiations with foreign investors for operations in southwest oilfields.

Iranian media quoted him as saying that there is no problem for negotiations with Eni. He added there was a need for about $1.3 billion to develop the third stage of Darkhovin.

Descalzi earlier said his company was interested in returning to Iran once the sanctions ended.

“Iran in terms of oil and gas is a huge and big country, very interesting, but we need to wait,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

Iran and the six world powers have reached a comprehensive agreement on the country's nuclear program, which will lead to the lifting of sanctions on Iran's energy sector.

However, the lifting of sanctions depends on verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the country's readiness to cooperate with the regulations proposed by the United States.

The Iranian government hopes for sanctions withdrawal in November of the current year.

Shell and other European energy giants such as France’s Total, Italy's Eni, and BP had built strong relationships with Iran through work in the country's oil and gas fields as well as crude oil purchases before halting them under sanctions.