Iranian Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has ordered a halt to all oil and gas fields in the country. Iranian lawmaker Sayid Kheydari said that the country was planning to focus on development of joint fields. He added that all deals with contractors had been cancelled.
Vladimir Sazhin, a senior scientist of the RAS Institute for Oriental Studies, clarified that Iran needed huge investments in oil and gas, about $420 billion, according to some evaluations. The expert reminded that the U.S. had eased sanctions for Iran, improving the situation since the signing of the Geneva Agreements. Sazhin believes that Iran will have big problems developing its oil and gas industry without foreign companies.
Tehran has invested a total of over $4.4 billion into joint Iranian-Iraqi fields. Development of joint oil fields on the western coast of River Karun is one of the priorities of the Iranian Petroleum Ministry.
