Iran welcomes foreign investors in energy projects

The necessary grounds have been prepared for foreign investors willing to invest in Iran's industrial and agricultural projects, a senior energy official announced on Monday. "Iran aims to increase its collaborations with foreign companies and sign new win-win oil contracts with them," Deputy Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Abdolreza Assadi said. He noted that many European and Asian companies have talked with NIOC to develop independent oil fields. "NIOC has defined 41 projects with top priorities for investment which includes 23 projects in oil sector and 15 projects in Gas sector plus two environmental projects," Assadi said. He reiterated that NIOC will facilitate investment of all Iranian and international companies to invest in the country's oil and gas projects. In April, Iranian Deputy Economy Minister Behrouz Alishiri announced that the value of foreign investment in Iran has witnessed a remarkable growth of 100 percent in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2014). "The value of foreign investment in Iran last year reached $16bln which shows more than 100 percent of growth as compared with the year before that, which was $7.5bln," Alishiri told reporters. The Iranian deputy minister pointed to the influence of the Geneva agreement between Iran and the six world powers (the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany) in November, and said, "We have held talks with trade delegations from France, Italy and China in Tehran, which shows their interest and eagerness for presence and investment in Iran. He underlined that about 800 foreign investors have entered Iran in recent months.