Legal Ground Governing Iran’s Upstream Oil and Gas Contracts with an Emphasis on Sovereignty and Ownership of Oil Resources

After the revolution, the legislator changed his attitude (Principle 45 of the Constitutional Law) and categorized oil and gas reservoirs (mines) among Anfal (property truly belonging to Prophet Mohammad or to any of the imam) and public wealth. In addition, it used the term “Public Ownership” in Principle 44. It seems that although the concept of national and public ownership is different from that of Anfal from ideological viewpoint, there are several similarities between these two concepts with respect to their effects. Most of the post revolution rules put an emphasis on maintaining ownership and sovereignty of oil resources. In this paper, these two concepts and the several interpretations made from them will be discussed. It should be noted that this paper has been written by using descriptive and analytical method.