Iran's state-owned NIOC has released a list of 29 international companies that are pre-qualified to participate in its upcoming bidding rounds. Most of the firms are from Europe and east Asia.
Several of the companies already entered into provisional agreements with NIOC during 2016, including Shell, Total, and Russia's Lukoil. Chinese state-controlled firms Sinopec and CNOOC also were included as qualified bidders, but did not reach any agreements with NIOC in 2016.
BP is the largest European oil firm not included in the list. Norway's state-controlled Statoil is also conspicuously absent, given the company's work in Iran before international sanctions were imposed.
US firms are almost completely absent from the list, with only oil services company Schlumberger included. The election of Donald Trump has cast a shadow over US investments in Iran, as the president-elect has vowed to rescind the agreement spearheaded by the Obama administration that ended nuclear-related sanctions earlier this year.
Iranian officials have previously said the first bidding round would be launched shortly after pre-qualification was established.
Upcoming projects identified for bidding include the giant 25.6bn bl South Azadegan oil field, the largest of 50 projects that Iran will offer to international companies in the near future. Several companies including Shell, Total, Japan's Inpex and most recently Malaysia's state-owned Petronas have signed up to evaluate the South Azadegan field since January 2016 with a view to future development.
Tehran plans to sign new upstream development projects worth at least $10bn by March. Iran's top advisory bodies in September approved the Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC), the framework for a new generation of oil contracts designed to appeal to foreign companies and attract much-needed investment in the country's upstream sector.
Oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has repeatedly said Iran needs $185bn-200bn to revamp its upstream and downstream sectors, and drive plans to boost crude production capacity to 4.7mn-4.8mn b/d by 2021 from around 3.85mn b/d today, and take gas production to 777mn m³/d from around 450mn m³/d.
The 29 companies pre-qualified by NIOC are: Cepsa, CNOOC, CNPC, CNPW, DNO, Eni, Gazprom, Inpex, Itochu, Japex, Kogas, Lukoil, Maersk, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, OMV, ONGC Videsh, Perenco, Pertamina, Petronas, PGNiG, Plus Petrol, Posco Daewoo, PTTEP, Schlumberger, Shell, Sinopec, Total and Wintershall.
