With over 14 years since the signing of a development contract with a consortium of three Hindi firms, expansion of Farzad B joint gas field in Iran's territories is currently stalled.
Accordingly, a delegation comprising directors of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) together with a number of officials at Oil India and Indian Oil Corporation are slated to visit Tehran in the current week in order to finalize the financial and investment models of the Iranian joint field with Saudi Arabia.
Ali Akbar Shabanpour, Director General of Pars Oil & Gas Company, confirmed the upcoming visit of the Indian delegation estimating that the negotiations will yield results by September.
The official had noted earlier in April that talks are underway with ONGC as Iran is expecting to receive a financial model for share of gas recovery from the joint field; “the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) would analyze the Indian proposal and negotiations will be resumed in accordance with a Heads of Agreement (HOA).”
“At the moment, technical and field negotiations on Farzad B is underway between Pars Oil & Gas Company and ONGC, and National Petroleum Investment Company is following up on the project’s economic aspects,” he had underlined.
Minister of Oil Bijan Zangeneh had also emphasized earlier in a press conference that “expansion of Farzad B remains as the only project to be undertaken by a foreign company.”
In 2002, the Indian consortium agreed to invest $4-5 billion in the first phase of the project to extract 1.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas from the gas field while no final contract has been ink between the two sides.
The Indian consortium comprises the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) overseas unit ONGC Videsh, the Indian Oil Corporation, and the state-owned Oil India.
The field, with estimated reserves of 12.8 trillion cubic feet of gas, has been left undeveloped due to international anti-Iran sanctions that have gradually begun to be lifted this year.
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