TEHRAN - Vice President for Executive Affairs Solat Mortazavi has said the government is going to invest four billion dollars in Khuzestan Province’s oil industry, Shana reported on Monday.

According to Mortazavi, the mentioned funding is going to be provided by the Headquarters for Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order, Mostazafan Foundation, the government, and the country’s banking system.

The official made the remarks in the inauguration ceremony of a project for supplying water to 19 villages in the mentioned province.

The Iranian government and especially the country’s Oil Ministry have been following new strategies to use the capacities of domestic companies for funding development projects in the country’s oil and gas sector as the U.S. sanctions are preventing foreign investors from collaborating with the Islamic Republic.

Back in September 2021, Oil Minister Javad Oji said his ministry was making necessary arrangements and planning for attracting $125 billion of foreign and domestic investment in the country’s oil industry within the next four to eight years.

The oil minister stated that the 13th administration presided over by Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, is completely ready to cooperate with domestic companies to develop oil industry projects in the upstream and downstream sectors.

Later in November 2021, Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr also said his company was seeking new win-win strategies for attracting investment in the country’s oil and gas industry.

“When talking about the need to improve contracts and increase the bargaining power and attractiveness of projects, we do not necessarily mean changing the nature of previous approaches, but it means seeking to improve and create win-win situations in the investment sector,” the official said.

Khojasteh-Mehr stated that oil activities are both capital-intensive and income-generating and that the profitability of activities in this industry is highly dependent on investment.

EF/MA