Iran's cabinet has approved a draft of international oil and gas contracts meant to attract foreign investors and oil buyers once sanctions are lifted, the Oil Ministry's Shana news agency reported.

The agency gave no details of the contracts, which it said should increase oil and gas production capacity in jointly held fields, but said they would be revealed in Tehran in coming weeks.

Under a deal reached with six major powers in July, Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for an end to economic sanctions that have hit Iran's oil production.

The Opec member's output is down a million barrels per day (bpd) since the start of 2012 at 2.7 million bpd, which deprives it of billions of dollars in oil revenue.

The global oil industry has been eagerly watching Tehran's plans to unveil new contracts as Iran has one of the world's largest oil and gas reserves.

Iran has said the new contracts would be a major improvement not only on the old buy-backs but also on the contracts that its rival and neighbour Iraq offered to oil majors during the 2000s.

The details of the new contracts will be unveiled in Tehran by October or November, with another conference in London in February 2016.

Iran says it needs foreign know-how and technology to help develop new oil fields and improve pipeline and refinery infrastructure.

Oil majors have said they would go back to Iran if it made a major improvement to the so-called buy-back contracts of the 1990s, which companies like France's Total or Italy's Eni said made them no money or even incurred losses.-Reuters