Baku, Azerbaijan, July 2
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
A contract for development of Phase 11 of South Pars gas field by a Total-led consortium is expected to be signed July 3, Tasnim news agency reported.
The sides have finalized the contract and reached full agreement on details, according to the report.
Iran’s oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, head of the National Iranian Oil Company, Ali Kardor and Total CEO as well as senior officials of China's CNPC and Iran’s Petropars will attend the signing ceremony, to be held in Iran’s oil ministry in Tehran.
Earlier in June, Kardor said that the 600-page contract is under review by France’s Total, China’s CNPC and Iran’s Petropars.
Total signed a preliminary deal for the South Pars project last year, becoming the first Western oil major to sign an energy agreement after the European Union and the US eased sanctions as part of a pact to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Once finalized, Total would operate the project with a 50.1 percent stake, China's CNPC would own 30 percent through one of its subsidiaries and Iran's Petropars would have 19.9 percent.
South Pars is part of a Persian Gulf reservoir that is one of the biggest gas fields in the world.
Iran’s side of the field contains about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensate. But its development has been hobbled by years of Western sanctions imposed over what the West said was Tehran's bid for nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.