Iran Focus
London, 29 October – In an article published in Al-Arabiya by Saleh Hamid on October 27, sources told that publication that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, and the companies affiliated with them, have acquired a percentage of new oil contracts signed between the Iranian oil ministry and International companies.
Iran’s military force, the Revolutionary Guards, command an industrial empire with huge political influence, and have now won sanctions relief under a nuclear deal agreed with world powers.
Iranian lawmakers were angered by the new oil contracts, claiming that these “confidential contracts” with western companies include clauses that contradict the Iranian constitution and are against Iran’s interest.
Last week, Iran’s national oil company said it it has, for the first time since last year’s nuclear deal, offered 50 oil and gas fields to international bidders.
A subsidiary of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, The Last Prophet company, per a contract between the Iranian Oil Ministry with French company Total, may now expand the Azadekan oil field in the region of Ahvaz.
Four other expanding oil and gas projects were awarded to subsidiaries of the Revolutionary Guards by Iran’s national oil company, in a bid to please the military establishment.
Long term contracts with Iran, ranging from 20 to 50 years, were signed with fifty oil companies, who will benefit from a percentage of oil production in the extraction phase, and from products from the oil and gas fields. The new contracts allows foreign companies to remain partners in production even after the stages of drilling, extraction and production are over. These contracts have been criticized as policies that are against Iran’s interests.
The Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has rejected the new contracts, saying that “the new oil contracts will not be approved until the implementation of the necessary reforms within the framework of Iran’s national interests”, which was approved and voted in after several amendments by the parliament last month.
After international sanctions were lifted as part of the nuclear deal last year, Iran has been trying to restore its oil industry.
