TEHRAN – The managing director of Iran’s Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC), which is in charge of developing the country’s giant South Pars gas field, said the deal for the development of Farzad B gas field (in the Persian Gulf) is going to be signed with a domestic company by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2021).

“The initial part of the contract which includes engineering studies has been implemented and preliminary work is currently underway,” Mohammad Meshkinfam stated.

Following the completion of the project, the extracted gas from Farzad B field will be transferred to the refineries of the South Pars complex and will be distributed among five refineries, according to the official.

He did not provide any information about the details of the mentioned deal, saying: “Additional information about this project and the deal will be announced at the time of official signing of the contract.”

Back in July, National Iranian Oil Company (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 they stopped their 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, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar 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