“Total has officially left South Pars Phase 11 deal after two months that it announced it would do so,” Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in an open session in Iranian Parliament on Monday.
Zanganeh further said that negotiations to replace Total is underway. The oil minister had earlier stated that a Chinese company would take over the South Pars project.
He was present in today's Parliament session to answer lawmakers' questions regarding incidents such as regular fires in Iranian refineries and petrochemical companies, and lack of preventive measures to stop their occurrences.
After his explanation, the two lawmakers who had asked for his presence in the Parliament, said that they were convinced.
The oil minister said that the fires had broken out in refineries and petrochemical companies that had been privatized without proper observation on the part of the Oil Ministry, while acknowledging “a large part of the oil industry is worn out as the equipment and machinery has been there for almost 100 years.”
“A special board has been set up to deal with safety violations,” the oil minister said, adding that there is a lack of regulations when it comes to private refineries and petrochemicals.
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