France’s Total and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) are set to sign the first major agreement with Iran for the development of its gas fields since the loosening of sanctions, Iran’s oil ministry said on Monday.
The deal, which will establish a consortium between Total, CNPC and Iranian Petropars to develop part of the giant South Pars gas field, is expected to be signed tomorrow with the National Iranian Oil Company, report Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran and David Sheppard in London.
The move marks Total’s return to Iran for the first time since 2010.
Sanctions against Iran’s energy industry were loosened in January, but so far Tehran has struggled to persuade western energy companies to make a rapid return to Iran and ensure a lasting revival of the country’s antiquated oil and gas industry.
France’s Total and Norway’s Statoil helped develop South Pars in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but left at the turn of the decade amid escalating tensions between Iran and western countries over Tehran’s efforts to make a nuclear bomb, as well as complaints about the terms under which the companies operated in the country.
Total was not immediately available to comment.
The South Pars field is estimated by the International Energy Agency to hold 51tn cubic metres of gas and has transformed neighbouring Qatar into the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, but because of sanctions Iran has been unable to exploit South Pars to its full potential.
Iran has the world’s second-largest gas reserves, and fourth-largest oil reserves, according to the US Energy Information Administration, and the country wants $200bn of investment in its energy industry over the next five years in order to raise production.
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