TEHRAN: Iran says it needs billions of dollars in investments to boost production from oil fields it shares with Iraq along its southwestern border.

       “We need around US$11bil (RM45bil) in investment to develop the second phase of the North Azadegan and Yadavaran oil fields, as well as the South Azadegan and Yaran,” Mohsen Khojastehmehr, appointed in September as the new head of the National Iranian Oil Co, said in a statement on the company’s website.

       The financing, should it come through, would help add more than one million barrels of oil per day to Iranian crude output from its shared fields with the neighboring Iraq, Khojastehmehr said without elaborating.

       International companies pulled out of the Islamic Republic’s energy sector after former United States President Donald Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 that curbed its atomic activities in exchange for economic sanctions relief.

       Earlier this month, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji said his country would welcome “any investor” willing to finance Iranian energy projects and receive crude oil or condensate as payment.

       France’s Total SA and China National Petroleum Corp were set to develop a major Iranian offshore gas project in the Persian Gulf before they opted out three years ago because of US sanctions on doing business with Iran. — Bloomberg CNPC was also previously involved in developing Azadegan, the largest oil field that Iran shares with a neighboring country, with an estimated 32 billion barrels of oil in place. -- Bloomberg