O il Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh says the ministry's top priority is to accelerate the proceedings to sign new oil and gas agreements with international contractors as a policy to defuse US pressures against the country.
"Another policy that the ministry has adopted is to diversify the range of contractors that would help protect the country’s oil industry against US pressures," Zanganeh was quoted as saying by the National Iranian Oil Company's news portal on Monday.
"We should not rely only on Europe as the only supplier of technical know-how to expand hydrocarbon fields," Zanganeh said, adding that diversifying contractors would provide a safe protection to Iran’s oil industry in the long run.
In early July, Iran awarded a contract to a consortium led by French energy giant Total for the development of Phase 11 of South Pars.
Based on the deal, Total would invest an initial $1 billion in the project that will be carried out together with China’s CNPC and Iran’s Petropars.
The deal was seen as the biggest vote of confidence in Iran since sanctions were lifted against the country under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
According to Zanganeh, the US may be able to reduce the pace of Iran's activities in oil and gas fields by putting political pressure on international oil companies, yet it cannot stop them.
He noted that Iran needs to take concrete measures to facilitate investments in its oil and gas projects, specifically the ones shared with Iraq and Qatar.
Referring to the new model of oil contracts—the Iran Petroleum Contract, Zanganeh said devising the new generation of oil deals was a significant step in the same direction, as it can pave the way for plugging the technological holes in downstream and upstream projects.
Energy authorities, including Zanganeh, believe that Iran's oil and gas production levels are not proportional to its vast hydrocarbon reserves, as the country has been deprived of cutting-edge oil recovery methods for a long time.