IRAN - July 19- Majlis Probes Oil Deals.

Parliament is to have a 6-week investigation into the oil and gas buy-back contracts signed by NIOC with foreign and local companies. Parliament's Plan & Budget Commission member Hassan Ramazanianpour says the probe aims to clear up suspicions over the deals and determine whether they served national interests. (Since 1995, NIOC has signed buy-back contracts worth about $12 bn. The latest was a $920m contract signed by NIOC and Agip of Italy's ENI group 3 weeks ago to develop the giant Darkhovin oilfield near the Iraqi border. A day before the signing, Ayat. Ahmad Jannati, spokesman for the traditionalist-dominated Guardians' Council, said he knew the names of those in NIOC and the Oil Ministry who siphoned off millions of US dollars from buy-back deals. Pres. Khatami and Oil Minister Bijan N. Zanganeh challenged Jannati to reveal the names or be brought to justice himself for "disrupting public opinion". On July 19 Zanganeh was quoted as saying he would publish, for the first time, contracts signed with foreign companies. Previously he had refused to reveal details on grounds of commercial confidentiality. Foreign firms appear confident their involvement will be endorsed. But they are nervous that turning oil and gas fields into factional battles will delay and complicate negotiations even further, already worried that NIOC terms in new buy-back deals have been hardened since mid-2000. The traditionalists' main target is Behzad Nabavi, a veteran leftist of Khatami's reformist camp who heads Petro Pars - which has been awarded buy-back contracts. Nabavi, director in several parastatal companies, is tipped to become a senior member of Khatami's new cabinet. The traditionalists' attack on the petroleum sector is a direct riposte to the reformist-majority Majlis to investigate the state JV and radio network IRIB, key traditionalist bastion).