Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.12
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran will sell 2 trillion rials (about $80 million) worth of bonds to fund upstream oil and gas projects.
For the first time in the country, bonds will be used to finance upstream oil and gas projects, Iran's Fars news agency quoted Ali Sanginian, the managing director of Amin Investment Company, as saying on April 12.
The upstream oil and gas sector is also commonly known as the exploration and production sector.
Iran's oil ministry plans to issue €9 billion worth of bonds in the current Iranian calendar year, the IRNA News Agency reported in December 2013.
The National Iranian Oil Company, the National Iranian Gas Company, National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), and the National Iranian Petrochemical Company will issue €5 billion, €1 billion, €1 billion, and €2 billion, respectively.
More than 40 trillion rials (about $1.6 billion) worth of bonds were sold three years ago to finance South Pars gas field development plan, but none of the phases of the gas field has come on stream yet.
The South Pars gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.
The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, i.e. North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.
The Iranian gas field, which is divided into 29 phases, contains 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, about eight percent of the world's reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of LNG resources.