Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 14
By Emil Ilgar – Trend:
Iran is still unable to access its revenues from the development of the Rhum gas field, despite that 9 months have already passed since the elimination of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Ali Kardor told Mehr Sep.14.
Iran is developing the Rhum gas field jointly with the UK. Ownership of Rhum is shared equally between BP and the NIOC.
The UK deposits Iran’s revenues from Rhum gas field to a bank account of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), but Iran is unable to access its funds.
Kardor didn’t mention how much UK would pay Iran or how much is the current output of the field. The project itself, commenced in 2005, is worth some $656 million.
Gas production from the Rhum field was stopped in 2010 in relation to international sanctions against Iran, however UK announced in 2014 that it resumed gas production from the field and Iran’s revenues are being deposited to a frozen bank account.
It isn't clear how much is the field's current output, but at its peak, the output capacity is about 8.5 million cubic meters per day. According to the estimates provided by BP, the Rhum field contains 22.6 billion cubic meter of gas.
Iran and P5+1 Group including US, UK, France, China, Russia + Germany reached a nuclear agreement with Iran, which was implemented in January 2016. The agreement eliminated sanctions on Iran.