TEHRAN -- Iran unveiled a series of projects to raise its oil production in collaboration with domestic companies, the country’s second initiative in days to leverage local resources to develop its energy sector.
Iranian companies were granted $13 billion in contracts on Sunday to boost output from six oil fields by as much as 350,000 barrels a day, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
The flagship projects include the development of the giant Azadegan field, which has an estimated 32 billion barrels of oil reserves, and Azar, both of which are shared with Iraq along Iran’s western and southwestern borders.
Iran’s pivot toward domestic firms gained momentum in 2018, when multinational companies largely left the country’s energy market in the wake of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Tehran nuclear deal and re-imposition of sanctions.
The shift gathered pace after Ebrahim Raisi became Iran’s president in 2021. Raisi advocates for reducing reliance on foreign entities and promoting self-reliance. 
IRNA described the new agreements as the country’s biggest oil deals in a decade. In 2022, a consortium of local companies and banks was assigned to develop Azadegan with necessary investments estimated at $7 billion.
Last week, Iran said it awarded $20 billion in contracts to domestic firms in a race with Qatar to ramp up production from the offshore South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf.
It was described the most strategic project in the history of Iran’s oil and gas industry and its long-sought empowerment of domestic entities, under which 90 trillion cubic feet of gas and two billion barrels of gas condensates will be available for use. 
Officials say the massive projects create an opportunity to kickstart economic prosperity and employment in the face of sanctions. They also allow Iranian producers and companies to proactively engage in the economic growth and industrial development of the country and neutralize the sanctions.
Inattention to domestic companies in various sectors in the past and overreliance on foreign expertise and knowhow stunted their growth and expansion, but the accruing exponential losses cascaded on the country which found itself in the lurch for the execution of major projects as foreign firms withdrew in the face of sanctions.  
This is while the Iranian companies had always proven their mettle through shouldering grave responsibilities in the most difficult times from eight years of the war on Iran in the 1980s to unfair 
Western sanctions imposed intermittently since the Islamic Revolution in 1970.  
If domestic companies are trusted, not only will it provide an opportunity to take advantage of their power, capacity and experience, but it will also protect and generate jobs and help achieve the high economic goals of the country.
Every project ceded to domestic companies means providing employment for a number of young people and professionals in the country. This is especially important in provinces such as Khuzestan, where employment does not match the capacities and facilities available in the region.
Therefore, supporting domestic companies will have an irreplaceable effect in the country’s economic growth, job creation, national production jump, economic prosperity and neutralization of sanctions.
Domestic companies, if supported and trusted, can dispense us from the need to foreign firms and provide for their growth and expansion, enabling them to undertake projects overseas and win honor for the region.