The CEO said the NISOC model of contract had been drawn up by a group of its experts and concords with a cabinet and parliament approval.

He said the NISOC contract model sets as a brand of Petroleum Ministry basket of contract models.

He went on to say that the contract had taken the NISOC more than 100 hours to be drawn up and three to four sessions were held with Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh to finalize the contract model and two sessions were also held to that end, attended by the NISOC board of managers and the Petroleum Minister.

After the second session with the board of managers, overall amendments were made in the contract and fortunately the contract frame of the NISOC was finalized, said the official, adding that after announcement and confirmation of the Minister of Petroleum, four fields, namely Parsi, Karanj, Rag Sefid and Shadgan, consisting nine reserves, were entrusted to contracts for development based on the NISOC model of contract.

The NISOC top official said the nine reserves include three reserves, namely Asmari, Pabdeh and Khami in Karanj field, three reserves, namely Asmari, Bangestan and Khami in Ragsefid field, and Asmari reserve of Parsi field and Bangestan reserve of Shadegan field.

After conclusion of the contract for development of the fields, per the Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh announcement, it will be possible to entrust the project for development of other fields within that framework to the NISOC, according to Alipour.

The official went on to say that fresh talks are underway with companies. "Talks are going on with Polish PGNIG, British BP and Russian DeNico Consortium."

The NISOC official said within that framework, after reaching final accord with the companies, disclosure agreement will be signed and expert studies will begin after offering the MDP.

To the end of his remarks, Alipour said development of the fields will take five years per the contracts. "The contract framework is similar to the new model of oil contracts in repayment section and capital and wage payment will be possible out of half the production surplus to the baseline target."

Commenting on volume of investment foreseen within framework of the new model of contracts, he said no ceiling and limit is in effect for absorption of capital and technology.