Iran says foreign oil firms interested despite US

VIENNA, Feb 1 (Reuters) Iran is moving ahead with plans to increase the role of foreign companies in boosting its oil output, despite growing US pressure on them because of its nuclear work, the head of Iran's state-owned oil company said.

The United States has frowned on deals that Asian and European oil companies have signed with Iran as it seeks to punish Tehran for working on nuclear enrichment, which Washington says is aimed at producing an atomic bomb.

''We are doing our job just as usual,'' the head of the National Iranian Oil Company, Gholamhossein Nozari, told reporters in Vienna.

''We haven't seen any negative response from companies so far. We hope the political situation will be resolved.'' But analysts have said that international companies have delayed investment decisions as they wait to see how the situation develops.

A US official said this week it would examine a multi-billion dollar deal signed last week by Royal Dutch Shell and Spain's Repsol to develop gas fields and export facilities in Iran.

The US has sanctions in place to punish foreign companies that invest more than 20 million dollars a year in Iran's energy sectory, but has never enforced them.

Nozari was in Vienna to promote a tender for oil and gas exploration rights to 17 onshore and offshore blocks, which Iran hopes will attract international investment of at least 460 million euros.

Iran sits on the world's second largest oil and gas reserves, a huge potential prize for international oil companies despite the political difficulties.

Executives from companies including Russia's Lukoil, Shell, Repsol and Statoil were among those present to look at what Iran is offering at the event in Vienna.

''It is very well attended,'' said analyst Julia Nanay from Washington-based consultancy PFC Energy. ''It's good that Iran can still attract interest from this many companies despite the international tension.'' NIOC was aiming to boost its crude output capacity to 5.3 million barrels per day by 2015 from around 4.2 million bpd now, Nozari said.

To meet NIOC targets, around 137.41 billion dollar of investment would be required from 2005-2014, he said.

But Iran's production targets have been slipping as it fails to attract these huge sums. In September, Iranian officials said they would miss a target to boost output by 500,000 bpd to 5 million bpd by 2010.

Aside from sanctions, domestic political wrangling and poor contract terms have curbed interest from foreign oil companies.

REUTERS AKJ BD1933