Baku, Azerbaijan, June 28
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's oil ministry will issue bonds worth 70 trillion rials (some $2.4 billion based on the official rate of 29,275 rials per each USD) during the current fiscal year (started on March 21), Moshtagh Ali Gohari, the senior official with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said.
The bonds will be used to finance various oil and gas projects aimed at maintaining the country's current output, Gohari said, the oil ministry's official SHANA news agency reported June 28.
The bonds will be issued in both national and foreign currencies via banking system as well as capital market, he added.
Some 50 trillion rials of the bonds will be issued through stock exchange, meanwhile 20 trillion rials will be sold via banks, Gohari explained.
Iran's deputy oil minister, Rokneddin Javadi said early in June that the bonds to be issued this year will mainly finance the giant South Pars gas field.
The South Pars gas field is estimated that the Iranian section of the field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of condensate in place.
South Pars is part of a wider gas field that is shared with Qatar. The larger field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran's territorial waters (South Pars) in the Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, referred to as the North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.
More than $1.6 billion worth bonds were sold four years ago to finance the South Pars gas field development plan.
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