* First tender for oil field due in November
* Details unclear despite months of talks
* Political infighting in Tehran slows process
* Iran sits on tenth of global oil reserves
By Rania El Gamal, Ron Bousso and Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN/ISTANBUL, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Two years after Iranpledged to open up its oil industry in anticipation of thelifting of sanctions, foreign companies say they still havelittle information about Iranian oil fields and contract terms,hindering investment decisions.
Bosses from oil majors including BP, Total,Eni, Royal Dutch Shell and LUKOIL have all travelled to Tehran this year, since the EU sanctionsended in January. Their teams spent weeks meeting localofficials ahead of investment tenders due to start next month.
But several senior executives and members of theirnegotiating teams told Reuters they still had not been givensufficient information about the geology of Iranian fields orcontract terms. The people, who were not speaking from Iran,said they were also unclear about how quickly they would be ableto recoup their investment and who they could partner withlocally.
While foreign companies are eager to enter Iran, which sitson a tenth of the world's oil reserves, they are also wary ofany contract terms that may lead to them falling foul ofremaining U.S. sanctions.
BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley, whose company is seekingdeals to develop several fields, said he did not know thedetails of any potential contracts yet.
"Iran is a large oil and gas province ... but we don't haveany specific contracts right now," Dudley said last week. "We'regoing to have to be very careful. We don't want to violate anysanction," he added.
If this lack of clarity leads to companies withholdinginvestment in the tenders or investing elsewhere, it couldundermine the plans of Iran's reformist President Hassan Rouhanito attract up to $185 billion from oil majors into 50 projectsand increase Iranian output to 5-6 million barrels per day (bpd)from less than 4 million now.
This could deprive the country of much-needed income as itseeks to recover from years of sanctions which hammered itseconomy.
The competition for foreign investment between oil-producingnations has intensified over the past five years due to abundantdiscoveries of new energy reserves in countries such as Braziland the United States.
Political infighting in Tehran has clouded the outlook forIran's energy sector. Hardline rivals of Rouhani have stronglyopposed giving overseas firms control of oil fields, saying thiscontradicts the constitution which states that natural resourcereserves cannot be owned by foreigners. The government says itsopponents are impeding an economic recovery.
Some oil executives looking to invest in Iran said they werealso unclear about whether deals would require parliamentaryapproval, a concern in a country with a complex and opaquesystem of clerical and republican rule where power is wielded byboth elected and unelected officials.
With presidential elections due in May, there has beengrowing opposition to Rouhani and his allies this year fromhardliners close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei andthe Revolutionary Guards, Iran's politically powerful elitemilitary force.
Tensions between the two camps have sporadically spilledinto the open, including a speech from Vice President EshaqJahangiri denouncing the government's critics at a major oilindustry conference in Tehran this week.
"You see how some neighbours have developed in recent years.For example Iraq managed to bring its production above 4 millionbpd. We should not let the country lag behind because ofirresponsible people," he told senior Iranian oil officials andrepresentatives of oil majors.
RESHUFFLES
There have been several management reshuffles this year atthe National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), which is based in oneof the oldest buildings in the capital.
"You go to Tehran and discover that the team that you havebeen talking to has completely changed," said a Westernconsultant working with a foreign major in talks with the stateoil company.
The reshuffles delayed by many months the approval of thenew model of contracts with foreign companies, called IranianPetroleum Contracts (IPC).
Iranian officials have said IPCs will be more profitable forinvestors than the buy-back contracts of the 1990s - the lasttime foreign firms were allowed to invest in Iranian fields -where companies recouped money via exports of oil and petroleumproducts.
Companies such as Total and Eni have said they lost money onIranian buy-back deals in the past and have called on Tehran toadopt IPCs for the past two years. In August, Rouhani'sgovernment finally approved the new contract model, saying itwould usher a new era of investments into its oil fields,containing 157 billion barrels of reserves.
However two months later, oil companies negotiating withIran are still in the dark about the exact terms of newcontracts, as well as if any deals need parliamentary clearance.
"I don't think anybody will go and sign a contract withoutparliament's approval. How do you guarantee that the contract isreal if there is no parliamentary approval in a country thatworks on the basis of a parliament," said an executive from anoil major that is negotiating a deal with Iran.
PARTNERS
When asked about the lack of clarity around contracts, thehead of NIOC Ali Kardor said this week that IPCs did exist andthat companies would receive them when participating in tenders.He declined to comment further on the subject.
He said his ministry would hold the country's first tender,for the South Azadegan oil field, on Nov. 19 and then wouldtender one field every month for the next 11 months.
Potential Western investors say they have yet to seedocumentation for South Azadegan or any other field detailingits reserves or work they be required to do.
An executive from an oil major said: "What we have seen sofar is only a framework of the IPC. Fees, terms are not clear.Iranian officials say that these issues will be negotiatedbetween foreign companies and NIOC."
An executive from another major said brief details hademerged in recent weeks, with Iranian officials tellingpotential investors they would be repaid over the course of manyyears - an unwelcome contrast with Iraq where repayments arebeing made almost as soon as investments are done.
The requirements to team up with local partners are alsostill to be clarified.
"IOCs (international oil companies) will be steering theprojects and Iranian companies will cooperate with them. In somefields, Iranian companies will steer the project," Kardor saidat the industry conference.
His deputy Gholamreza Manouchehri later told a newsconference at the NIOC headquarters that Iran had cleared 11local firms to take part in tenders.
Huge projects would likely be led by Western oil companies,while smaller one would likely be led by local firms, he said,speaking in English, aiming to specifically address theinternational media.
Last week, NIOC signed its first IPC with Persia Oil & Gas,an Iranian firm identified by Washington as part of Setad - aconglomerate controlled by Ayatollah Khamenei.
"The establishment wanted to calm down hardliners but alsoit made clear who is in charge of Iran's oil and gas industry -the hardliners and the IRGC (Revolutionary Guards)," saidTehran-based political analyst Hamid Farahvashian.
"They don't want to lose their control over Iran's energysector and any foreign company that wants to get involved inthis sector has to deal with them." (Additional reporting and writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editingby Pravin Char)
