Using Production Sharing Contracts in Iran's Petroleum Industry: A Legal Analysis

The 2012 Petroleum Act outlining the tasks and authority of the Iranian Petroleum Ministry allows implementation of new contractual models including partnership with domestic and foreign investors and contractors in compliance with protective production without transfer of the ownership of oil and gas of the reserves. Although this law refers to the general contractual partnership models which can be interpreted as production sharing, profit sharing, or, but it seems that the most suitable interpretation of this clause is using production sharing contracts in Iranian oil and gas industry because of following reasons; first, the ownership of oil and gas of the reservoirs would not be transferred to foreigners. Second, the nature of the contract allows the partnership in investment to result in the partnership in production. Third, due to the specific characteristics of the upstream sector, mostly the production sharing contracts have found applications in achieving the exploration and development (E & P) as well as production. Forth, the previous production sharing contracts concluded before the Islamic Revolution are available and can be used as reference in this regard. Thus, the main elements of such contracts can be outlined by referring to the terms and conditions of similar previously concluded contracts.