French company to sign $4.8b Iran gas deal, biggest since sanctions lifted

French energy giant Total will finally sign its multi-billion-dollar agreement to develop an Iranian offshore gas field tomorrow, the oil ministry says, in the biggest foreign deal since sanctions were eased last year.

“The international agreement for the development of phase 11 of South Pars will be signed on Monday in the presence of the oil ministry and managers of Total, the Chinese company CNPC and Iranian company Petropars,” a ministry spokesman tells AFP.

Total signed a preliminary deal with Iran in November, taking a 50.1 percent stake in the $4.8 billion project. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) will own 30 percent and Petropars 19.9 percent. Total will put in an initial $1 billion for the first stage of the 20-year project.

The gas produced will “feed into the domestic Iranian market starting from 2021,” a Total spokesman told AFP in Paris. He says the company would “implement the project with the strictest respect for national and international law”.

The contract was initially due to be signed in early 2017, but CEO Patrick Pouyanne said in February that Total would wait to see whether the US administration of President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran.

— AFP