According to the National Iranian Oil Company chairman, BP has informed his company of their intentions to open an office in the Iranian capital city of Tehran this summer, with an eye toward transferring technology and capital to Iran for investment in the nation’s oil industry.
If confirmed, this would be the third Western oil company to make such plans public, with Austria’s OMV and France’s Total already confirmed to be moving to open business deals in Iran.
BP’s presence would be a bit more controversial than the others, however, given its history. BP was formerly British Petroleum, and before that Anglo-Persian Oil, a company which had a virtual monopoly on Iranian oil for decades, and on whose behalf the 1953 Iranian coup was launched to protect their control over the oil.
Since the end of international sanctions on Iran, the nation has sought international investment to modernize and repair their oil infrastructure after decades cut off from the rest of the world.
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