In a press conference held on Saturday, 27th November 2021, Mohsen Khojasteh Mehr, Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) stated: "NIOC welcomes foreign investment, but if for any reason foreign investment does not materialize, we will not waiting for them and we have different scenarios for securing funds in order not waste time."
He added: “There are about 24 gas refineries, more than 130 processing and production units and about 140 onshore and offshore drilling rigs in the country. Iran has a very good maritime capacity; in addition to being equipped with a fleet of vessels for carrying crude oil, petroleum products and gas condensate with high logistics capacity.”
He stated: “For the next 10 years, NIOC plans to reach the production capacity of 5 mln bpd of crude oil and 1.5 bcm/d of gas, for which about $90 Bln should be invested in the oil sector and about $70 Bln in gas sector.”
Khojastehmehr continued: "By implementing of NIOC’s plans, the country's crude oil export and refining capacity will reach 1.5 times from before the sanctions.”
He went on to say: “"Iran has considerable hydrocarbon reservoirs capacity and NIOC’s strategy is to increase gas exploration activities. We plan to conduct extensive studies to increase our knowledge of Iran’s underground hydrocarbon reserves.”