Via The Wall Street Journal, an intriguing report of possible U.S. interest in Iran’s offshore petroleum reserves.  As the article notes:

“…A Norwegian company that has done extensive prospecting work on Iranian offshore resources says a U.S. company has expressed interest in buying its “Persian Carpet” seismic study. That data would be useful if U.S. sanctions against Iran were dropped and U.S. companies could bid for exploration leases.

“That would have been unthinkable just six months ago,” Global Geo Services chief executive Knut Oversjoen said Thursday, according to Upstream.

Iran has the world’s second-biggest oil reserves—behind Saudi Arabia—and the second-biggest gas reserves—behind Russia—according to BP’s statistical review.

That suggests a couple of readings. Either there really is U.S. interest in Iranian seismic data, which means some company is willing to bet hard cash on the prospect of a diplomatic opening with Iran.

Or GGS is just trying to drum up more interest in its study. The company recently wrote down the value of the seismic study given a dearth of interest from sanctions-bound Western oil companies, and made no sales in the fourth quarter, Upstream notes.”