The headline to this article was amended on Sept 4, 2015.
British companies including Royal Dutch Shell, Amec and Weir risk being outmanoeuvred by European rivals in a race for projects worth up to $185 billion in Iran’s shattered oil industry.
Despite the prospect of sanctions against the country being lifted as early as next spring, fewer than ten UK executives joined Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, at the reopening of the British embassy in Tehran at the weekend.
Iran has the world’s biggest gas reserves, according to BP, the fourth-biggest oil reserves and a booming population of more than 80 million people, 70 per cent of whom are aged under 30.
“We are joining the race a bit late,” said Sarosh Zaiwalla, a veteran