Iran announced on Saturday that it has started to present the much-awaited new format of its oil contracts to European and Asian energy corporations.

Mehdi Hosseini, the head of an expert team at the Ministry of Petroleum charged with drafting Iran’s new oil contracts, has told the local media that “intensive negotiations” are currently underway with European and Asian corporations over potential investments in Iran’s oil industry after the sanctions are removed.

Hosseini said Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum is also presenting the post-sanctions investment opportunities to the companies.

This, he said, is meant to facilitate the rapid return of European and Asian majors to Iran’s oil industry “as soon as the sanctions are lifted.”

Iran is currently negotiating with P5+1 over a final nuclear agreement that envisages the lifting of certain economic sanctions against Iran in return for certain moves by the country to restrict some of its nuclear energy activities.

A key area of sanctions that are expected to be removed are those that ban investments in Iran's oil and gas projects.

Hosseini also emphasized that the final format of Iran’s new oil-sector contracts – named Iran Petroleum Contract or the IPC – has been finalized, adding that Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh will soon present it to the cabinet.

The IPC will be a modification of the traditional buy-back risk service contracts and has been specifically designed to increase the attractiveness of Iranian oil projects for foreign investors.

It offers different stages of exploration, development and production to the contractors as an integrated package.

Also, Iran will set up joint ventures with the contractors to extract reserves at the fields. The contractors will be accordingly reimbursed through a share of production from the fields.

By Press TV