Tehran views China as a major potential energy investor

The Iranian oil ministry expects major developments in its domestic oil and gas sector – developments that are primed for Chinese investments, the oil minister said September 21

Iranian oil minister Javad Owji met in Tehran with Zhong Guidong, the president of the Iranian branch of Chinese energy company Sinopec, this week. According to the oil ministry’s official news agency SHANA, the Iranian oil ministry expects to attract as much as $145bn in new foreign and domestic investments during the next four to eight years.

Owji said the administration of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi is eager to work more closely with Chinese companies in the oil and gas sector to capitalise on those potential opportunities.

"We expect the administration to have many partnerships and agreements between Iran and China,” the minister was quoted as saying.

Raisi’s administration is more conservative than that of his predecessor, Hassan Rouhani, rattling confidence in Western powers looking to return to the nuclear negotiating table. Shirking sanctions, the Iranian government recently facilitated a fuel shipment to Lebanon.

Apart from oil riches, some of which straddle the border with Iraq, Iran shares claims to the vast natural gas reserves in South Pars gas field, which it shares with Qatar.