Area: 1,648,000 Km2 - Population: 68,017,860
Capital: Teheran - Currency: Iranian Rial

History of Eni’s Operations in Iran

Eni has been operating in Iran since 1957, when a jointly owned company was set up by Agip and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) under the name Société Irano-Italienne des Pétroles (SIRIP). SIRIP was assigned three research areas with one offshore area in the Persian Gulf and two onshore areas, one in the Zagros mountains and the other in southern Iran, in the desert region of Mekran. SIRIP discovered offshore oilfields of Barganshahr (1960), Now Ruz (1965) and Hendijan (1968), which together produced approximately 120,000 barrels/day, and the company was successful in exploration operations in the Zagros mountains where 3 important discoveries were made at Doudrou (1965),  Khu-Rig (1967) and Shurom (1970).
In 1965 Agip, together with other foreign companies (Phillips and ONGC), was allocated two offshore blocks in the southern part of the Persian Gulf, following which an operating company, the Iranian Marine International Oil Company (IMINOCO), was set up and Eni became the operator. Exploration operations in the area resulted in 2 discoveries at Rostam and Rakhs, and they began producing oil in 1969 and 1971 respectively with 60,000 barrels of oil per day.
In 1969 Agip, together with other European companies (Elf, Total, Petrofina and OMV), created an oil group, the European Group Oil Companies (EGOCO), which signed a contract with NIOC to search for oil in an onshore area in southern Iran. In the following eight years  of operations, four large gas deposits were discovered in the Kangan area.
In 1979, all shares held by foreign countries in the Iranian upstream sector were nationalised following the Khomeini Revolution.

Eni returned to the Iranian upstream sector in 199, participating and operating in a joint venture for the development of the Balal, Dorood, South Pars Phase 4 and 5 (all completed) and Darquain deposits, the buy-back service contract for which was signed in 2001.