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Iran has no chance to attract foreign investors to the country’s oil industry via the former models of oil contracts, including the buyback model, believes Parviz Mina, former member of OPEC Long-Term Strategy Committee.

The contract types that were used previously, including EPCF and buyback, are not accepted by foreign companies and no investment will be made by foreigners under those types of contracts, Mina told Trend.

CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ali Kardar said on July 4 that the Islamic Republic plans to develop its oilfields using three kinds of contracts, including buyback, EPCF (engineering, procurement, construction and finance), and the new oil contracts called the Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC).

Only joint oil and gas fields will be offered via the IPC, according to Kardar.

Mina is sure that the only contract type that might help Iran to attract foreign investors is the IPC that was introduced in late 2015 as a measure to make more out of the Iranian oil business.

However, the projects under the IPC haven’t been offered so far due to disputes between Iranian administration and hardliners who say the new generation of Iran’s oil contracts “is against the country’s national interests and contradicts the Islamic Republic’s strategic benefits.”

In mid-June, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh expressed hope that the IPC will be operational in three months.

He said his ministry held various talks with the critics of the new contract model, adding certain revision was made in the IPC.

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