Iranian Company Replaces Total, CNPC in South Pars Gas Field Project

By Staff, Agencies

An Iranian company is going to take over a drilling project in phase 11 of the country’s South Pars gas field as French company Total and the China National Petroleum Corporation [CNPC] dropped out of the project, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh announced.

In remarks at a Tuesday meeting of a headquarters planning a surge in domestic production, Zanganeh said an Iranian company will resume drilling in the phase 11 of South Pars gas field which has remained unfinished after Total and the CNPC left the project.

The minister said it is high on the agenda of the administration to complete the South Pars gas field projects, adding that completion of 17 phases of the field will lead to production of 750 million cubic meters of gas.

Zanganeh also said the Oil Ministry expects to bring 17 petrochemical plants into operation in the current Iranian year, which began four weeks ago, noting that the new plants will produce $6 billion worth of new products.

In July 2017, French company Total signed a $1 billion deal to develop the South Pars gas field in cooperation with CNPC and Iran’s PetroPars.

But the French pulled out of the deal in May 2018 in light of a decision by US President Donald Trump to pull his country out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and impose sanctions on Tehran.

Later, the CNPC formally replaced Total in the project, but it suspended investment in Iran later in December 2018 in response to US pressures.

The investment halt followed four rounds of talks between Chinese officials and senior US authorities who urged CNPC to refrain from injecting fresh financing in Iran.

South Pars Project represents the world’s largest gas field.