There are no limitations for US oil firms to invest in Iran, said Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.
“We have set no limitations for any company or country. The US government has banned companies from doing economic activities in Iran,” Zangeneh said in a television interview on Saturday night.
“Boosting competition will be in favor of Iran and we see no restrictions for the presence of US companies,” he added.
The US law has banned the presence of its energy companies in Iran since 1995.
Iran has announced that $185 billion investment is needed in upstream oil and gas sector, as well as $70 billion in petrochemical and $200 billion in optimizing energy consumer sectors to halve the energy intensity, which is two times more than global averages.
Zangeneh also said Iran can increase its oil production by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) within a week immediately after the removal of sanctions against the country.
He said the country’s crude production capacity can further increase by above one million bpd within a month after all sanctions are lifted – what he said is expected to take place by the end of September.
“Some of the most effective sanctions [against Iran] with regards to the oil industry were those that targeted aspects such as sales, volumes, shipment, insurance and the transfer of money,” the Iranian oil minister said.
“If those issues are resolved, Iran will regain the market share that it has lost which amounts to above one million barrels per day.”
The Iranian minister added that Tehran has informed OPEC about its determination to regain its lost market share, stressing that the country will require “nobody’s authorization to retrieve its rights”.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Zangeneh rejected as “unfair” criticisms that Iran is to blame for the plunge in the international prices of oil.
“The issue of oil prices is very complicated,” he said. “There is a strong political will [beyond Iran’s borders] that does not want the prices to rise.”
Zangeneh said he anticipates a further fall in oil prices if OPEC fails to make room for incoming Iranian oil volumes.
He warned that the countries which have a high production capacity will suffer from this.