Iranian official: Total deal an icebreaker. More to come soon

Last week’s contract with the French oil and gas giant Total could open Iran for more foreign investments, or at least that’s what the Middle Eastern country is hoping for.

In an interview given to Financial Times, Iran’s deputy oil minister for international affairs Amir-Hossein Zamaninia said that the deal with total was „an icebreaker“ and Iran will see more „multibillion-dollar oil and gas contracts with other companies including Russians and Europeans soon.“

He reportedly said that the next such agreement might happen „in a few weeks“.

As for the Total deal, the French oil company had said it Total would “be happy” to be the first Western oil company to reach an agreement with Iran. Such wish was granted last Tuesday when the company signed a Heads of Agreement (HoA) with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for the development of phase 11 of South Pars, the world’s largest gas field.

The South Pars 11 project (SP11), located in the Persian Gulf, offshore Iran, will have a production capacity of 1.8 billion cubic feet per day, or 370 000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The produced gas will be fed into Iran’s gas network.

Total will operate the SP11 project with a 50.1% interest alongside Petropars (19.9%), a 100% subsidiary of NIOC, and the Chinese state-owned oil and gas company CNPC (30%).

Offshore Energy Today Staff