Petrobras seeks oil contracts in Iran
A group of executives from Brazil's federal energy company Petrobras has made two trips to Iran in recent months with
an eye to acquiring oil production contracts there.
Iran is reportedly preparing a licensing round for exploration blocks in the Persian Gulf, and Petrobras is
considering participating because it is struggling to improve its position in the Atlantic basin, the report said.
The exploration affairs director at Iran's oil ministry, Mahmoud Mohaddes, said the government would invite Iranian
and foreign companies to bid for tenders on exploitation of a series of new oil fields in Sistan-Baluchestan,
Jazmurian, Kape Dagh, Bojnourd, Mashhad, Garmsar and Saveh.
Petrobras plans to include the Middle East in a forthcoming review of its strategic focus scheduled for August.
Petrobras operated in the region until the end of the 1970s, and discovered two large fields in Iraq, Majnoon and
Bahr Ums, with total reserves of 10 bn barrels of crude, but never got as far as producing oil, as former Iraqi
president Saddam Hussein tore up the contract in 1979. The company then decided to focus on the Atlantic basin, South
America and the North Sea.
Following the last strategic review three years ago, Petrobras sold out of the North Sea to concentrate on southern
South America, West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico.
