Iran said on Friday that it plans to hold a major international tender for a drilling job in an oil field in the Persian Gulf waters. 

The tender comes as the country is already moving toward the much-awaited removal of the US-engineered sanctions in light of the recent progress over its nuclear energy program.

The job mainly concerns repairing production wells at Sirri oil field at a total cost of €230 million over a period of three years.

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) plans to award it on the basis of a package of integrated services that will cover engineering, procurement, drilling and finance (EPDF) sections.

Sirri was awarded to Total in mid-90s as Iran’s first buyback project.  Total had replaced the American energy giant ConocoPhillips which had to withdraw its planned investment in the project as a result of US oil sanctions against Iran.

Based on the current regime of sanctions, companies are barred from investing in Iran’s oil sector projects among many other restrictions that target the industry.

A crucial section of those sanctions – specifically those that target Iran’s oil industry – are expected to be removed in the future as a result of the recent progress over the Iranian nuclear energy case.

Back in July, Iran agreed with the P5+1 group of countries – the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany – to implement certain restrictions over its nuclear energy activities.

The P5+1 has in return pledged to remove certain economic sanctions against Iran – including some of those against its oil industry - once it is verified that Iran has actually implemented its promised restrictions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced earlier this month that it had closed a controversial case that looked into the so-called past military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear energy program.

The announcement was seen as a crucial step toward the final verification of the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear energy program and the P5+1’s pledged removal of the sanctions.