Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 6
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
India’s state-run oil company, ONGC, is expected to introduce a financial investment model for the development of Iran’s Farzad B gas field by November, an Iranian official said.
Chairman and Managing Director of Pars Oil and Gas Company Mohammad Meshkin Fam has said that ONGC will employ an international advisor to help the company in drafting the model, SHANA news agency reported.
The two Iranian and Indian companies have launched a new round of talks on development of Iran’s Farzad B gas field.
Meshkin Fam earlier announced that Iran would hold an international tender for development of the field, If the talks lead to nowhere.
Last month, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran’s oil minister, said that Tehran is not pleased with the New Delhi-based ONGC’s proposal for development of Farzad B gas field.
Zanganeh said that Iran has granted another opportunity for the Indian side to submit a “reasonable” financial investment model, adding that it will be the last chance for Indian company and Iran will make “another decision” if ONGC fails to offer a reasonable option, Zanganeh said.
Earlier in August it was announced that Iran and India have ended differences over development of Farzad B gas field and ONGC is expected to invest some $5 billion in the project.
In 2008, a consortium of OVL (ONGC Videsh Ltd.), Oil India Ltd. and Indian Oil Corp. discovered the Farzad B gas field, which is estimated to contain 12.8 trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves.
In August 2010, OVL submitted a revised master development plan (MDP) for producing 60 percent of the field's in-place gas reserves, but did not sign a contract with the Iranian side out of fear it would be exposed to sanctions imposed by the US on Iran's energy sector, which did not allow foreign companies to invest more than $20 million a year in the country's energy sector.
After the West lifted sanctions against Iran under the nuclear agreement, OVL proposed a $3 billion field development plan to Iran to develop Farzad B.