Iran to adopt new contract for investors

The country will present what it hopes is a more investor-friendly contractual regime, but international oil companies are still wary of close engagement with the country

Iran's economy depends on attracting international oil companies and the government is trying to put in place something better than what is on offer in neighbouring Iraq. The terms will be presented at a conference in Tehran 28-29 November - not in London as originally planned.  A senior former Iranian oil policymaker tells PE that the new model contract will explicitly not be framed as a 'buyback mark II', alluding to the unloved service contract model introduced in the late 1990s which failed to convince IOCs. "The new contracts are designed to optimise what the IOCs do best, by giving them incentives at various levels, and offering equity participation once production gets started along w