Iran’s Petropars Developing South Pars Gas Field Alone

Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh says the Iranian energy company Petropars is now developing the Phase 11 of South Pars Gas Field alone after China’s CNPC International and France’s Total fully abandoned the project.

Zangeneh said on Saturday developing the first phase of the project was awarded to Petropars in full after its initial partners, China’s CNPCI and France’s Total, pulled out of the project.

“Petropars has started developing the project and is currently sealing contracts for correcting jackets and provision of main items for drilling operations,” he said.

In July 2017, Total signed a $1 billion deal to develop the South Pars gas field in cooperation with China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) and PetroPars.

But the French pulled out of the deal in May 2018 in light of a decision by US President Donald Trump to re-impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Later, the CNPC formally replaced Total in the project, but it suspended investment in Iran later in December 2018 in response to US pressures.

The investment halt followed four rounds of talks between Chinese officials and senior US authorities who urged CNPC to refrain from injecting fresh financing in Iran.

South Pars is the world’s largest gas field.

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