TEHRAN – National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has put the domestic Petropars in charge of the development of phase 11 of the giant South Pars gas field (in the Persian Gulf), following the withdrawal of Total and CNPC, IRNA reported.

Although Petropars was supposed to be a member of the consortium which was going to develop the field, but since the French Total and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have officially left the project, now the Iranian company is solely in charge of the field’s development project, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Saturday.

Zanganeh noted that Petropars is only able to develop the first unit of the mentioned phase (which focuses on gas production, as in the rest of the phases), adding: "Technologically speaking, Petropars is currently not able to develop the second unit of the said phase." 

“Petropars has begun work on the project and has signed contracts for "repairing the jackets" and "supplying basic goods for drilling wells," the oil minister added.
In mid-September 2019, Zanganeh had said that the phase 11 of South Pars gas field’s development project will go on stream by the first half of the Iranian calendar year of 1400 (September 22, 2021).

National Iranian Oil Company signed a contract with Total in 2017 for developing the phase 11 of South Pars field with an initial investment of $1 billion, marking the French company the first major Western energy investor in the country after sanctions were lifted in 2016.

The company was pressured to leave Iran after the United States threatened to impose sanctions on companies that do business in the country.

Later on, Iran awarded the project to CNPC which was part of the consortium that was first supposed to carry out the project.

The Chinese company however, did not go on with the project and left the contract like the French party.

The offshore South Pars field holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves ever found in one place.

EF/MA