Iran’s energy sector is attracting investments from around the world following the recent lifting of sanctions on crude oil exports.
The Singapore-based firm Kim Heng Offshore & Marine on Friday said it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Iran Marine Fund to provide its technical expertise and financing to Iranian offshore marine and oil & gas projects.
The memorandum of understanding entails Kim Heng will support the offshore sector in the following areas: shipbuilding, chartering of KHMO’s fleet and marine facilities, purchasing of offshore vessels, procurement & supply chain management, rig management services; and maintenance & refurbishment of structures, facilities & rigs.
Iran’s IMF, not to be confused with the International Monetary Fund, is is a state-owned enterprise of the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The IMF has been established with the aim of achieving sustainable development and acts as the interface between the government and the private sector, through the provision of finance and technology.
According to Kim Heng, under the deal signed with Iranians, the total value of the projects to be entered into will be up to €400 million over a period of 10 years.
The commercial terms and form of financing for each project under the strategic partnership will be negotiated on a project by project basis and documented in definitive agreements.
Kim Heng also said that since the memorandum was unbinding there is no certainty that any of the projects will materialise or that any definitive agreements could be entered into.
The Singapore-based company owns two shipyards in Singapore, providing services including offshore rig repair, maintenance and refurbishment, fabrication, vessel newbuilding as well as painting and blasting works.
Following the lifting of the sanction on crude exports earlier this year, Iran has been working on boosting its production to the pre-sanctions levels, despite talks within OPEC to potentially freeze the output in order to tackle low oil prices.
According to IEA’s May report, Iranian supply rose to 3.56 mb/d in April, a level last hit in November 2011, before sanctions were tightened.
The country’s petroleum minister Bijan Zangeneh in April said that Iran was aiming to raise its crude oil production to 4 million barrels a day by March 2017.
Earlier in May, Iran signed a dealwith South Korean energy company Kogas, over the development of one of Iran’s ‘key gas fields in the Persian Gulf’ – the Balal. Kogas will carry out technical studies over the gas layers of the Balal field, after which it will propose a development solution to NIOC.
Offshore Energy Today Staff