$815m of paper to be issued for offshore oil development

TEHRAN,April 24(MNA) - The National Iranian Offshore Oilfields Company (NIOOC) plans to issue 10 trillion rials (some $815 million) in bonds by May 20 for financing national oil projects, the Shana news agency quoted Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ahmad Qalebani as saying. Last year, contracts for developing Forouz B and Lavan fields were signed, Qalebani said, adding that other contracts for developing Farzad A and Farzad B will be signed this year. The Iranian parliament (Majlis) has approved issuing a maximum of 250 trillion rials (some $20.3 billion) in bonds this year, which began on March 20. NIOOC also plans to ink $14 billion worth of contracts to develop offshore oilfields, NIOOC Managing Director Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh said on April 14, adding that 70 percent of the total would be used to develop joint oilfields. “Some $9 billion worth of contracts were signed last year to develop Salman, Lavan and Forouz B fields,” Zirakchianzadeh said. Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said on August 2011 that the Iranian government should consider plans, and provide greater budgets, for the development of joint oilfields in the border areas with Iraq. The oil industry's infrastructure needs more than 500 trillion rials (about $41 billion) of investment to achieve objectives of the 20-Year Outlook Plan, which ends in 2025, Qasemi was quoted as saying. Iran has prioritized boosting the gas production capacity from its joint oilfields with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Qasemi noted. Iran sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia and is trying to grow its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in its South Pars gas field. The field is shared by Iran and Qatar. The Iranian share, which is divided into 29 phases, has about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight percent of the total world reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.