Officials: European firms seeking gas and oil ties with Iran

During sanctions era, we suffered some technical problems, lack of connection to West's advanced countries and problems in supplying equipment, Deputy Vice-Prsident of the National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) Mohammad Reza Takaydi said.

'Since Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA), we were able to make contact with the Western companies, including signing a direct agreement with a Scottish company.'

Pointing to some Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with a number of European companies, Takaydi added that real oil sale became possible for Iran as a result of JCPOA, with over 2 million barrels of Iran's oil being sold per day, as compared to the only 600,000 barrels before the landmark agreement.

'Since JCPOA, we have been witnessing many countries coming to Iran or expressing their interest in oil and non-oil projects, as well as a rise in the country's international interactions,' said Mohammad Taqi Zamansaraie, Managing Director of Petroluem Equipment Industries Company.

He described the JCPOA as a successful agreement in eliminating Iranophobia that led to easing of relations with other countries and signing contracts, transferring the knowledge and attracting foreign investments.

'Over the past six months, we have had several talks with various European companies interested in cooperation in joint oil projects,' said Hamid Bord, Managing Director of Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC).

He added that since the implementation of the agreement between Iran and world powers in July 2015, the company had good offers from gn countries, including Norwegian companies, which are pioneer in offshore equipment, as well as the Dutch and Italian companies that expressed their eagerness to have trade ties with Iran.

Iranian Offshore Oil Company is one of the largest offshore oil producers in the world, which has been in charge of producing Iran's crude oil in Persian Gulf for over the past 50 years.

Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, overall, possess some 63 percent of the world's proven oil and 40 percent of the gas reserves.

Persian Gulf as Iran's strategic center of oil production and export, is of a significant role in securing, deepening and expansion of the Islamic world ties due to laying on the large volume of hydrocarbon resources, embracing joint oil fields and shared borders of Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, as well as being the world's energy highway.

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