Exploration of and extraction from oil and gas reservoirs, promotion of domestic petroleum knowhow and bolstering the Iranian private sector are the main pillars of Irans new oil and gas contract terms which are highly regarded by Irans Ministry of Petroleum, Bijan Zangeneh, Iranian Minister of Petroleum said. Addressing a conference in Tehran to introduce Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC), the countrys new oil and gas contract model, Zangeneh said these pillars are seriously considered by the petroleum ministry and should be as well highly regarded by companies who are willing to enter into Irans petroleum industry in the post-sanctions setting. "It is about time the draconian sanctions against Iran were lifted so that, once again, it is proven that oil sanctions [only] harm its consumers and producers and that the flow of oil must not be threatened and sanctioned by political approaches," he said. Representatives from petroleum heavyweights including Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Lukoil, to name a very few, have arrived in Tehran to attend the conference which is to introduce IPC. The event opened on Saturday in Tehran. Representatives from 152 foreign companies are attending the conference, said Mehdi Hosseini, head of the conference and the official in charge of devising the new contract terms at Irans Ministry of Petroleum. He said the representatives come from 45 countries. Totally, 335 companies have participated in the event to be the first to know about the contract terms. A follow-up conference will be held in London on February 22-24 after the IPC event in Tehran. The contract took two years to be devised by the ministry and be endorsed by the Rouhani administration, and the projects introduced under IPC are hoped to meet a part of Irans need for developing its oil and gas industry, he said. IPC is replacing buyback deals. Under a buyback deal, the host government agrees to pay the contractor an agreed price for all volumes of hydrocarbons the contractor produces. But under the IPC, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will set up joint ventures for crude oil and gas production with international companies which will be paid with a share of the output. In the wake of nuclear deal reached last July, Iran has been receiving high-ranking officials and corporate executives of major companies including from Germany, Spain, Austria, Italy, and France to discuss new cooperation ventures. Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh has said that Iran welcomes foreign investment in its energy industry, but stresses technology transfer by foreign partners in the new contracts.