TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) – France’s Total Fina Elf, Malaysia’s Petronas, Italy’s oil exploration and distribution unit Agip, an Eni subsidiary, Norway’s Statoil, and the UK’s leading energy provider BP have made their rival bids for exploitation of phases 11 and 12 of the South Pars gas field, an official announced here Tuesday.

Managing director of the South Pars Oil and Gas Company (SPOGC), Asadollah Salehi Firouz said that the final result of the tender is not yet certain and that NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company) is still working on the proposals.

“Some of the companies have made two bids for the development of both phases since NIOC has offered the two tenders simultaneously,” Salehi Firouz said, adding that negotiations with National Iranian Gas Export (NIGE) for the development of phase 13 of the gas field are currently underway by SPOGC.

A few months ago, (NIOC) offered an international tender with the aim of development of Iran’s giant South Pars gas field amid the United States’ pressure on international investors not to invest in the Iranian oil and gas sectors because of Iran’s nuclear programs.

The merged Total Fina Elf Company, Iran's biggest investor with a share in four of the country's seven foreign buyback contracts, in 1995, ignored U.S. opposition to world investment in Iran to sign a groundbreaking deal to develop the Sirri oilfield.

Following the French company, many companies tried to grab lucrative contracts, which proved that the U.S. efforts to isolate Iran with the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act had backfired. The United States turned a blind eye to the eagerness of their allies investing in Iran.

Oil is responsible for roughly 85 percent of Iran's export revenue, between 40-50 percent of the Iranian government's budget, and between 10-20 percent of Iran's gross domestic product. Current statistics put Iran's proven oil reserves at 90 billion barrels, or approximately 9 percent of the world's total. Some Iranian oil ministry officials claim that the proven oil reserves are more than 100 billion barrels, but the number has not been yet confirmed.