TEHRAN (Dispatches) - A top Iranian official said the country is going to put development of its Azadegan oilfield out to tender in coming days, noting that 29 oil giants, including Shell and Total, have been invited to make their offers in the event.
Ali Kardor, CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said on Sunday that Iran will hold the bidding event before Friday, June 2.
According to the official, invitations have been sent to 29 international companies to make offers for development of Azadegan oilfield, located in Iran’s southwestern province of Khuzestan.
The major foreign companies include Shell, Total, CNPC, Sinioc, Lukoil, Pertamina, and OMV, he added.
In August 2016, Kardor had announced that development of Iran’s big oil fields would be put out to tender using a new model of contracts known as Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC).
Azadegan, known as the world's third largest oil field, is believed to contain 37 billion barrels of crude.
Part of the giant oilfield, known as South Azadegan, is shared with neighboring Iraq.

Petrochemical Deal With Shell Near
In another development, Iran says it also expects to sign an agreement with global energy giant Royal/Dutch Shell in the near future over a key petrochemical project.
Rahim Sharif Mousavi, the managing director of Maroun Petrochemical Company, told the domestic media that talks with Royal/Dutch Shell was likely to end within the next few weeks.
Sharif Mousavi emphasized that the agreement with the company involved providing engineering services for production of ethylene oxide.  
The official added that talks over the same scope were also progressing well with two Italian engineering companies including Maire Technimont.  He emphasized that the discussions to that effect were also close to a final agreement.  
"It is likely that the engineering contract with Royal/Dutch Shell would be finalized within the next weeks,” Sharif Mousavi said.  "It would be then that we would witness the start of work over the development of new projects in Maroun Petrochemical Company”.   
The National Petrochemical Company of Iran (NPC) announced last year that it had signed a basic agreement with Royal/Dutch Shell over the development of several joint petrochemical projects.
This followed an announcement by NPC chief Marzieh Shahdaei that her company had serious plans to increase production of petrochemicals to 160 million tons per year by 2025 from the current volume of 60 million tons per year.