Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 17
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran plans to buy new shares of oil and gas fields abroad and to participate in oil and gas projects across the world, the Islamic Republic's deputy oil minister Amir Hossein Zamaninia said.
"Plans are underway regarding the issue but we will not announce further details in this stage," he said, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.
Shah Deniz is one of the fields that Iran studies the issue of stake increase, Zamaninia said, adding no final decision has been made so far on the issue.
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) holds 10-percent share in the project for developing the Shah Deniz gas and condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
Mahmoud Vaezi, minister of communications and information technology of Iran, co-chairman of the intergovernmental commission earlier in August said that Tehran intends to increase its stake in the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas project.
He said that negotiations on this issue are already underway with the Azerbaijani side.
"The Iranian company NICO owns equity in the Shah Deniz project, and we have held talks to increase its stake in the project," said Vaezi.
As part of the implementation of the Shah Deniz project, the annual gas production volume will increase from nine billion cubic meters (within the first phase) by additional 16 billion cubic meters in the second phase. Two offshore platforms will be installed and over 20 subsea wells will be drilled to produce additional volumes of gas within Shah Deniz-2 project.
Iran also has share in the British Rhum Gas Field located 390 km north-east of Aberdeen, 109 meters of water. Gas production and export began on December 20, 2005.
Development of the Rhum project was circa £350 million. Prior to the start of production, Rhum was the largest remaining undeveloped gas reservoir in the UK Continental Shelf. The partners in the Rhum field are BP (Operator) 50 percent and Iranian Oil Company (U.K.) Limited (A subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company) 50 percent.
Iran's revenue of the field is blocked due to international sanctions.