TEHRAN – National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a $1.78 billion deal with a domestic company called Petropars for the development of Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf, Shana reported.

The deal was signed by Mohammad Meshkinfam, the managing director of Iran’s Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC), as NIOC representative, and Hamidreza Masoudi, the managing director of Petropars, in a ceremony on Monday.

The signing ceremony was also attended by Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.

Based on the deal, Petropars is going to develop the field to boost its output to 28 million cubic meters per day of sour gas over a five-year period.

The gas produced by this field will be transferred to the onshore facilities of Pars 2 Region in Kangan for processing.

Back in July 2020, NIOC Managing Director Masoud Karbasian had said that the operator for Farzad-B gas field was determined and the deal for the development of the field was going to be signed in the near future.

Farzad-B, with estimated reserves of 12.8 trillion cubic feet of gas, was opened in 2008 by a consortium of three Indian companies: ONGC, Oil India Limited, and Indian Oil Corporation.

India was supposed to develop the field after its exploration, but the Indian side stopped its activities after the West intensified sanctions on the Islamic Republic in 2012.

With the lifting of the sanctions, India once again called for the development of Farzad-B by ONGC Videsh which is the overseas investment arm of the country’s biggest energy exploration firm.

In May 2019, Zanganeh said the Oil Ministry had prepared a plan for financing the project and the framework of the contract was going through final editions.

NIOC asked the Indian side to submit a technical plan and then a financial proposal for the development of the field, however, after submission Iran did not agree with the other side's financial proposals.

Later in August 2019, Karbasian announced that Iran was not going to wait for India on developing Farzad-B gas field, and soon the project would know its operator.

EF/MA