Lukoil says interested in Iran comeback
Russian energy giant Lukoil said on Tuesday it will return to Iran as soon as the US-engineered sanctions that bar foreign investments in the country are removed.
Lukoil’s President Vagit Alekperov said his company wants to return to Iran’s Anaran oil project, which the company had abandoned due to Iran sanctions.
“We hope that the current political dialogues will open up investment opportunities on the Iranian territory in the medium term,” Alekperov has been quoted as saying by Sputnik news agency. He made the comment while speaking with reporters at the IHS CERAWeek 2015 Energy Conference in Houston, Texas.
Reports earlier said the company had already opened its office in Tehran in anticipation of the removal of anti-Iran sanctions. It had been quoted as saying by news agencies that it is studying the geological data on several Iranian projects.
Lukoil was forced to withdraw from Iran in 2010, after the United States imposed economic sanctions against Tehran. Prior to that, it jointly worked with Norway’s StatoilHydro over the exploration of the Anaran block, with is now estimated to have an oil reserve of 2 billion barrels.
Several other international oil giants has also voiced interest to make an Iran comeback. They include Eni, Total and Shell that have said they are already looking into Iran's post-sanctions business potentials.
This comes as Iran and the P5+1 group of countries are working on a final agreement over the Iranian nuclear energy program that has a deadline of June 30. A key point of the agreement will be the removal of a series of economic sanctions on Iran – specifically some of those that ban foreign investments in the country’s oil and gas projects.
Iran’s Petroleum Minister Bijan Zangeneh last year said he wants to see seven international energy corporations back in Iran's oil industry. The corporations he named were BP, Statoil, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Eni, Total and Shell.
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