Iran plans 20-year contracts as incentive for energy investments

Tehran: Iran will pay foreign oil companies larger fees than it did under previous buy-back contracts to attract $100 billion of investments needed to rebuild its energy industry.

The Gulf country, once Opec’s second-largest crude producer, will also offer 20-year contracts on oil and natural gas projects, Roknoddin Javadi, managing director of state-run National Iranian Oil Co, said in an interview in Tehran. “What’s been announced so far looks like an attractive contract — no doubt it’s a vast improvement on the buy-back contracts,” said Robin Mills, a Dubai-based consultant who worked formerly for Royal Dutch Shell Plc on projects in Iran from 1998 to 2003.

Iran is preparing to boost its output once world powers remove economic sanctions that choked off investment in its oil and gas industry. Oil exports fell to an average 1.4 million barrels a day last year from 2.6 million in 2011, US Energy Information Administration data show.