Foreign energy contractors and project developers can return to Iran, but they will have to agree to Tehran’s new conditions, said Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.
Zanganeh on Monday attended a ceremony on signing eight contracts on preserving and raising Iran’s oil production capacity, worth $1.2 billion, reported Tasnim News Agency.
In remarks on the sidelines of the event, the oil minister said Iran has significantly boosted its capacity to sell and export oil and receive petrodollars under the pressure of sanctions that have escalated since 2018.
The sanctions are doomed to extinction, but Iran will not abandon the capabilities it has developed, he added, stressing that the new capacities will be strengthened and organized.
Highlighting Iran’s progress in the sectors relating to contractors and equipment manufacturers, the oil minister said, “If foreign companies come (to Iran), we will cooperate with them, but it doesn’t mean that we would abandon what we have achieved.”
Zanganeh reminded the foreign firms that Iran will be working with them on a new basis, which is stronger and at a higher level.
In December 2020, Iran’s president said the country will sell up to 2.9 million barrels per day of oil in the next Iranian year if the sanctions are lifted, adding that the minimum daily crude sales will stand at 2.3 million barrels even if the sanctions remain in place.