A senior Iranian oil official said on Friday that 90 foreign firms had shown an interest in 17 new onshore and offshore blocks that were offered to investors earlier this month, Iran's state radio reported. Iran, the world's fourth biggest oil exporter, offered the blocks for oil and gas exploration at a meeting in Vienna. "The 17 new blocks that have been presented in the recent Vienna meeting have been welcomed by 90 foreign companies for investment," the head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Gholamhossein Nozari, was quoted as saying by state radio. Nozari has previously said NIOC was aiming to boost its crude output capacity to 5.3 million barrels per day by 2015 from around 4.2 million bpd now.
