TEHRAN, Iran — The Iranian oil minister says today that China’s CNPC has withdrawn from the development of an offshore gas field and that state-owned Petropars will take over the entire project.
The South Pars gas field was to be developed jointly by France’s Total, China National Petroleum Corporation and Petropars under a $4.8 billion (4.1 billion euro) deal signed in July 2017.
In this photo from March 16, 2019, an Iranian worker carries Iranian flags prior to an inauguration ceremony of a natural gas refinery at the South Pars gas field on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf, in Asaluyeh, Iran. (AP/Vahid Salemi)
The deal came after Iran reached a 2015 agreement with world powers that gave it relief from sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear program, ending years of economic isolation.
Total left the project three months after US President Donald Trump’s administration withdrew from the nuclear accord in May last year and reimposed sanctions on Iran’s oil industry and other key sectors of the economy.
“Phase 11 (of South Pars) will be entirely developed by Petropars company,” Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh is quoted as saying by the ministry’s official website.
Asked whether CNPC International had abandoned the project, Zanganeh says: “Yes, they have.”
— AFP
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