Deputy director of exploration blocks and foreign partnerships at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) announced that domestic and foreign companies may purchase tender bid documents for 17 exploration blocks before July 21 and forward their technical and financial proposals up to August 1 because there is no decision to further extend the deadline. Hossein Roshandel had already told PIN that the last deadline for purchasing tender documents had been announced June 10 while the deadline for presenting proposals had been set at June 20.
The official stated that it did not seem possible that the figures related to purchase of documents would change remarkably before the end of the deadline, expressed hoping that technical and financial proposals are presented on time. He stated that despite current political conditions and some rumors about lack of willingness on the part of foreign companies to take part in Iran’s oil industry projects, their enthusiasm for the upcoming tender bids has been like before.
Director of NIOC’s Exploration Department, Seyyed Mahmud Mohaddes, had already noted Iran aiming to attract foreign contractors is considering incentives such as increasing period of oil production from 15 to 20 years as well as reducing the sum of letters of guarantee from 300,000 dollars to about 150,000 euros (200,000 dollars). A seminar introducing 17 Iranian exploration blocks was held in Vienna, Australia, in early February 2007 and was welcomed enthusiastically by international oil companies. The blocks set aside for simultaneous exploration and development are located in Ilam, Danan, Fassa, Bandar Abbas, Quchan, Kalat, Kavir, Raz, Maraveh Tappeh, Moghan, and Naftshahr regions.
There are also Alvand, Dayyer, Laleh, Ferdowsi, and Taban blocks, which are located in the Persian Gulf. The blocks are located in Khorassan Razavi, Northern Khorassan, Semnan, Ardebil, East Azarbaijan, Golestan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Fars, and ArdebilIran Mehrforuz block is also being explored by a Spanish company,” he said provinces. Early estimates show that a total of 450 million euros should be invested in the blocks and the figure may increase as the results of exploration operations are made known.
Via: Tehran Times
