TEHRAN (Sputnik) – Iran hopes that the investments in its petroleum industry would be higher than $20 billion while the exploration would begin in early 2016, the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company told Sputnik on Saturday.
"We shall put up exploration deals on tender. We do not know the exact days, as the talks with those interested are in progress, as is price negotiating, but we expect the exploration to start in the beginning of next year… we hope that the investments will exceed $20 billion, many companies have already shown interest in investing in the Iranian oil market," Roknodin Javadi said.
In July, Iran and the P5+1 countries, comprising the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Germany, signed an agreement to guarantee the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions against Tehran.
Western sanctions were estimated to have cut Iran’s crude oil export revenue by almost half since 2011.
