TEHRAN – A second list of international companies qualified to bid for Iran’s new model of oil and gas projects, known as Iran Petroleum Contract, is going to be released within the next few days.

The National Iranian Oil Company is preparing a new list of companies eligible for participating in the oil tenders and the approved candidates will be notified after finalizing the list, deputy oil minister Karim Zobeidi told ISNA on Friday. 

“Most of the candidates are Russian companies and their names will be announced next week,” Zobeidi said.

The official said although NIOC has not yet received any document from BP but the British company has not been eliminated from the potential bidders’ list. 

In January, NIOC announced that 29 international companies were prequalified to bid for the country’s oil and gas projects based on the new model of contracts.

According to Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Anglo-Dutch Shell, France’s Total, Italy’s Eni, Malaysia’s Petronas, Russia’s Gazprom and Lukoil, Austria’s OMV, Germany’s Wintershall, as well as companies from Spain, Poland, China, Japan, India and some other countries were among the companies prequalified for IPC.

EF/MA/MG