Foreign firms allowed operating Iranian oil and gas fields

TEHRAN,Dec.21(MNA)--There is no limitation for foreign companies to carry out production and operation activities in Iranian oil and gas fields, an official with the national Iranian Oil Company stated. Mohammad-Ali Emadi told that the country will not boost crude output in the current year compared with the year before. Emadi said on December 11 that the country’s oil output would rise by one million barrels per day by 2015. According to Iran’s fifth five-year development plan (2010-2015), the country’s gas production capacity should increase by 250 million cubic meters per day, he noted. He also said that Iran’s crude oil reserves will end by the next 50 years, adding that the oil deposits are recoverable by 29 percent on the average. Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said in August that the Iranian government should consider plans for the development of joint oilfields. The government should increase the budgets for the development of joint oilfields, Qasemi added. "The oil industry's infrastructure needs more than 500 trillion rials (about 50 billion U.S. dollars) of investment to achieve Iran's 20-year economic perspective plan goals," Qasemi said. Qasemi said that the private sector should form "huge oil consortiums" to finance energy projects in the country and to exploit joint oil fields.