Iran’s South Pars oil and gas field. Photo: NIOC.

While European energy giants like Royal Shell and the Italian Eni sPa have already licked their lips at Iran’s reopening markets, many investors are still wary over Iran’s troubled past, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

“Investors who wait months for sanctions to be lifted will then have to gamble that they won’t run afoul of enduring blacklists or the vow by the U.S. and other world powers that sanctions will ‘snap back’ into place if Iran fails to live up to commitments to restrict its nuclear program,” reported Bloomberg.

Compounding their trepidation is how to negotiate the disintegrating sanctions regime as well as Iran’s tumultuous history, Suzanne Maloney, an energy analyst at the Brookings Institution, told Bloomberg. 

Still, officials from countries all over the world have expressed interest in exporting their businesses to Iran, the Middle East’s second largest economy after Turkey. Germany’s foreign and economy ministers have already said they plan to visit Iran, and France’s foreign minister is also planning a trip.

U.S. officials estimate that within six months Iranian oil will flow to international markets and international companies will be able to penetrate the domestic market, investing, trading, insuring and shipping, according to the report.

In the U.S., however, the business situation could run into some hurdles if local or state authorities fail to comply with the Iran deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Article 25 of the 159-page document addresses concerns, which Bloomberg suggested mainly resides with European authorities, that the federal government could have to “take the appropriate steps” to ensure local authorities are implementing the JCPoA, or complying with the removal of sanctions against Iran.