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By Alex Lawler and Peg Mackey
VIENNA, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Iran on Wednesday named sevenWestern oil companies it wants back in its vast oil and gasfields once international sanctions are lifted and said it wouldoffer contract terms in April next year.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh named the seven inorder: Total of France, Royal Dutch Shell,Italy's ENI, Norway's Statoil, Britain's BP and U.S. companies Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips.
Iran has the world's fourth-largest proved national reservesof oil - most of it cheap to produce - and is also home to thebiggest proved reserves of natural gas, some 18 percent of theglobal total.
But with nationalisation in the Islamic revolution of 1979,the oil companies were thrown out. Iran's share of world oilproduction fell to below 40 percent by 1997 from 55 percent inthe 1970s. Its gas output remained negligible.
Oil companies from around the world drifted back in the1990s, and Zanganeh oversaw their return as minister under thereformist government of 1997-2005.
Total returned to onshore fields in 1997 and Shell in 1999,both while Zanganeh was minister and both in defiance of theU.S. sanctions of the time, even though President Bill Clintonhad blocked a Conoco project in 1995.
But Iran's production stagnated through the 2000s amidgrowing international tensions over its nuclear programme. Themore effective sanctions instituted in 2012 have choked outforeign investment and sent output down to 2.65 million barrelsa day in November from an average of 4.3 million in 2011.
Iran last month reached an interim deal with six westernpowers to limit its nuclear programme, under which sanctions onoil investment and trade with Iran may be lifted next year.
EUROPEAN TALKS FIRST
Speaking to reporters at an OPEC meeting, Zanganeh said hewas already talking with some companies, although so far notthose from the United States.
"We had no limitations for U.S. companies. Twenty years agothere were limitations against them from their ownadministration. For doing projects in Iran, we have nolimitations," Zanganeh said.
He is due to meet senior executives from Western oilcompanies including Eni and Shell on Thursday, an Iranian oilofficial said.
Zanganeh made no mention of Russian, Chinese or Japanesecompanies or those of other nationalities. Asked whether hewould like to see Asian, Indian, Chinese companies coming toIran as well, he said: "Yes, but now we are discussing withEuropean (firms)."
He said contract terms would be better than those inpost-war Iraq, which limited oil companies to operating feesrather than the share of production deals they prefer.
"I cannot say more about the detail," Zanganeh said.
Mehdi Hosseini, an Iranian official in charge of revisingnational investment terms, told Reuters he hoped to be able tointroduce the new contract model at a London conference in thesecond week of April.
"The Iranians aren't under any illusions that they can drawanyone in before the sanctions are lifted," said a Western oilexecutive from a company previously involved in Iran. "And mostinternational oil companies will be careful not to go one steptoo far before a final agreement is reached between Iran and theWest."
A Western oil source from another company that had investedin Iran said, "A removal of sanctions that would allow fortangible progress for international oil companies is still atthe minimum 18-24 months away."
