Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 31
By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:
Iran hasn't reached any agreement with foreign companies over purchasing or manufacturing floating liquefied natural gas vessels (FLNG), but the negotiations regarding LNG projects are fruitful, an Iranian official told Trend on conditions of anonymity.
The official added that Iran has signed memorandum of understandings (MoU) with South Korean Kogas over development of LNG projects as well as with National Energy Administration of China over developing mini-LNG projects as of now.
Iran has three LNG projects, only one of them was developed by 50%, but stopped when western sanctions were imposed on Iran in 2012.
Iranian official said that the country plans to resume the development of "Iran LNG" project with absorbing investments by March 2017 and the project is expected to complete by 2019.
"Iran LNG" plant will produce 10.4 million tons per year of LNG.
Iran also plans to build several mini-LNG projects, meant to meet domestic need for gas in remote areas.
The Iranian official refused to reveal the results of negotiations with Germany's Siemens over building mini-LNG plants, saying that for now, Iran and China has MoU to build mini-LNG plants with 100,000 tons to 400,000 tons production capacity per year.
Iran announced in March that it is negotiating with international companies to both rent and build FLNG vessels.
Iranian officials have previously said that they are negotiating with Belgium's Exmar and Norway's over FLNG vessels.
Michael Webber, Senior Analyst and Managing Director of Shipping, Equipment Leasing, & Marine MLPs Equity Research told Trend in April that a "partial lifting of sanctions clears some runway for Golar (large independent owner and operator of LNG carrier) to move in, but since topside (Black & Veatch) and turbine (GE) providers are American companies (and still restricted from sending technology to Iran) any asset play would likely need to be somewhat retooled."
"Seems like more of a speed bump than a road block, but could kick out the time frame a bit," Webber said.
He added that while Iran is a real possibility, it's important to note that some sanctions remain in place (which prohibits U.S. companies from conducting business with the country, i.e. sending U.S. technology is still prohibited), and Golar would likely need to use different turbine/topside suppliers, which wouldn't be a deal-breaker in our view, but would likely add some time.