Azerbaijan , Baku, April 4 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /
Iran has offered €300 million foreign exchange bonds to help finance development of its giant South Pars gas field from the second half of last month, Shana reported quoting Iran's Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Adviser Mohammad Hasan Mousavi Zadeh as saying.
Over €200 million worth of bonds were sold by Bank Saderat, Bank Tejarat and Bank Sepah, Mousavi Zadeh added.
According to this Iranian year budget law, the central Bank of Iran (CBI) permitted POGC to issue foreign exchange denominated bonds worth €5 billion through domestic branches of Iranian banks, Mousavi Zadeh said.
Under the CBI licenses, foreign exchange bonds has been offered by Bank Saderat, Bank Tejarat and Bank Sepah as of March 12, 2011.
Earlier the Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ahmad Qalebani reported of issuance permits by Central Bank of Iran (CBI) on offering oil industry foreign exchange denominated bonds by domestic branches of Iranian banks for the first time.
Iran 's Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi sa id the ministry plans to invest about $90 billion in South Pars gas and oil projects in the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21).
Mirkazemi underlined that about $60 billion will be allocated to the upstream projects and about $30 billion to the downstream sector, the official website of the Oil Ministry Shana reported on Tuesday.
The official also noted that an extra $20 billion will be invested in the petrochemical projects of the giant field.
Mirkazemi further said that the Oil Ministry plans to complete the developing projects of all the remaining phases of the field within 35 months.
Mirkazemi also stressed the need for foreign investment in the site to speed up the projects, saying that once all the phases of the South Pars come on stream, the field can produce 25 million cubic meters of natural gas and about 40,000 barrels of liquefied natural gas per day, making the country's annual revenue from the field hit $110 billion.
Deputy Managing Director of Pars Special Economic Energy Zone Pirouz Mousavi said earlier in March that more than $200 billion investment is needed for the South Pars projects until the end of the country's Fifth Development Plan (2011-2016).
Iran 's Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan is part of long term roadmap for sustainable growth.
One of the world's biggest oil and gas producers, Iran has been hit by international sanctions that have frightened away international energy companies.
The South Pars field is a gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is the world's largest gas field and is shared by Iran and Qatar. According to the International Energy Agency, the field holds an estimated 50.97 trillion cubic meters (1800 trillion cubic feet) of in-situ gas and some 50 billion barrels of condensates.