A high-ranking official at Ministry of Petroleum said on Saturday that the cost of oil projects has minimized by half in the post-sanctions era.
Managing Director of the Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company (IOEC), Gholamreza Manouchehri, said that in the post-sanctions era, an oil platform will be transferred to Foruzan field from South Korea and construction project on it will continue up to the completion phase.
Manouchehri said that in the sanctions era, Iran's direct link with the European and well-credited oil companies was minimized to the extent that many of the foreign partners had to stop cooperation with Iran.
To this end, many oil projects were halted as foreign companies stopped delivering required equipment, thus inflicting heavy cost on the Iranian companies, he said.
He added that a number of Iranian companies in the sanctions era, had to pay extra cost to the middlemen and brokers to provide them with their needed equipment.
Disruption of financial and banking relations forced Iranian companies to pay the money for the purchased items with recourse to the international exchange dealers and middlemen and this inflicted hefty cost on Iranian companies.
However, with implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in January, the restrictions facing Iranian enterprises were gradually removed and the companies hence could proceed with financial commitments so easily and through the international banking system.
Hence, Manouchehri said the cost of implementing projects was cut by 50 percent in the post-sanctions era.
According to the official, such problems as equipment, sold at high prices by foreign companies through one or two intermediaries, high price of transportation and cost caused by transfer of foreign exchange made projects costlier and the cost is expected to be minimized by half after elimination of sanctions on Iran.
He commented on the 7,000-ton platform in Foruzgan gas field and said the platform will be transferred to Khorramshahr from South Korea to undergo incoming phases of construction project.
Foruzan oil field is located in the Persian Gulf and is shared with Saudi Arabia.