In November last year, Rosneft and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a road map for strategic cooperation in oil and gas in Iran—cooperation which Rosneft’s chief executive Igor Sechin said would involve a total of US$30 billion of investments. At the time, Russian media quoted Sechin as saying that the parties could soon sign several binding agreements, and the total production from those projects could be up to 55 million tons of oil equivalents annually, equal to 1.1 million boepd.
Now Rosneft has reconsidered its involvement in Iran, due to the US sanctions on Iranian oil and due to a change in Rosneft’s strategy to focus on growing production in Russia, according to Vedomosti’s sources, Russian business daily Vedomosti reported, quoting three sources close to Rosneft’s top management.
Earlier this year, a local Iranian company, Dana Energy, in a consortium led by Zarubezhneft, signed an agreement with the NIOC to redevelop the Aban and West Paydar oilfields, with total capex estimated at around US$740 million.
But now Zarubezhneft is said to have decided to quit the Iranian project due to sanctions.
Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, said as early as in May that it was putting its plans to develop projects in Iran on hold, due to the US sanctions.
LR/PR