The nature of Iranian petroleum contracts in upstream section

Abstract

Petroleum contracts are an important and sensitive issue in Iranian petroleum industry. Monitoring on petroleum contracts especially in upstream section is too important due to length of term and high financial volume. After Islamic revolution in Iran, a challenging discussion between the Parliament and Government was the supervision and approval of petroleum contracts by Parliament. Article 77 of Iranian Constitutional Law permits the Parliament to monitor on international agreements directly. Therefore, determining the nature of petroleum contracts would highly impact on this kind of supervision by the Parliament. However, Parliament can monitor on these contract properly by using its authorities mentioned in the Constitutional Law and by codification or modifying relevant laws including the Law to Modify Petroleum Law.