A US delegation will visit Iran this week to study the investment opportunities of the country, meet officials and representative of oil companies. Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Abbas She'ri Moghaddam has confirmed the upcoming visit, emphasizing it as the basis for business of US oil and gas companies in the Islamic Republic after the lifting of sanctions, Gazeta.ru reports.
Alexey Kokin, a senior analyst of Uralsib Capital, told Vestnik Kavkaza that no official results of the delegation's visit should be expected. Iran, in his words, needs investment guarantees because the Iranian oil industry is in a very bad shape as a result of the sanctions hindering its development for over two years. The effect of the US-Iranian cooperation on the world market will depend on the scale of their collaboration, the expert says, adding that the investments will neither impact the market in 2016 nor in 2017. Politicians have the final word, Kokin rounds up.
Vyacheslav Kulagin, the director of the Center for Studies of World Energy Markets, RAS Institute of Energy Research, noted that lifting of the sanctions would give Western companies access to Iran and let Tehran boost oil production for the European market. In his opinion, it is a long-term project for the next 3-10 years. He pointed out that Israel and large oil states will be frustrated by reconsiliation of the US and Iran because it gives way to a new competitor on the oil market and provoke new internal differences in the Middle East, complicating the geopolitical situation in the region.
