Addressing a ceremony to strike 8 oil contracts with local companies on Monday, Mr. Zangeneh also voiced his ministry’s readiness to welcome foreign companies willing to operate in Iran’s oil and gas projects.

"If foreign companies come, we will cooperate with them, but on a new basis," he said in an address at the ceremony.

"Sanctions are mortal and will be gone, but we will not give up on the capacities we have created and we will organize and strengthen them," he said. “Today's capacity to sell oil, transfer oil and receive oil money is in no way comparable to what was the case back in March 2018 and the beginning of the sanctions. We will not allow these capacities to be lost. We organize these capacities.”

The Minister of Petroleum pointed to the capacity created in the contracting and equipment manufacturing sector during this period, and added: "Of course, if foreign companies come, we will cooperate with them, but this does not mean that we will abandon what we have achieved. We will talk to them on a new basis that is much more stable and of a higher level.”