Total can cooperate with CNPC in South Pars: NIOC director

“If Total is willing they can take part in the downstream sector of the South Pars phase 11 development project," Jashnsaz said, the Mehr News Agency reported.

Total has a memorandum of understanding with NIOC to develop phase 11, but the project was overshadowed by haggling over contract terms.

NIOC has accused Total of delays and said it had given the Paris-based company an ultimatum six months ago to finalize work before Tehran moved forward with another partner.

Eventually, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed a 5-billion-dollar contract in Beijing on June 3 for the development of phase 11 of the South Pars gas field.

According to the contract, Total and Malaysian Petronas can return to the project and collaborate with the Chinese CNPC, if they express readiness.

After signing the contract, Jashnsaz said that the deal came after much delay and waste of time by Total regarding the project.

“The project will be accomplished in 52 months and aims at producing 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 70,000 barrels of heavy gas condensates per day,” Jashnsaz explained.

He went on to note that the first phase would become operational 44 months after the contract took effect. The SP phase 11 is projected to produce 500 million cubic meters of gas per day in the first phase.

Meanwhile, the head of the French oil major Total said on Friday that the Company’s negotiations with Tehran on a multi-billion dollar contract to develop a major Iranian gas field are at a standstill, Reuters reported.

"They (negotiations) have not been broken and they have not been resumed either. They are not in a very advanced state," Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie told journalists on the sidelines of an economic forum in southern France.

“Liquefied natural gas is a complicated thing and our Chinese partners are good investors and good candidates but I think, in the nicest possible way, that they don’t have the same kind of expertise as we do,” he said, adding Iran remained a key country for Total.

Previously Jean-Jacques Mosconi, head of strategy and planning at Total had said, “We are still involved in this project and especially in the major project of South Pars phase 11, combined with the liquefied natural gas (LNG) train.”

“We are not used to entering a major project without remaining a key operator. Our role cannot change in a deep way and we will remain a key operator of the project, so this means having a key stake in the project,” he said.

“I can tell you we are still in,” he said, adding Total had never lost its relationship with Iranian authorities.

“For sure some Chinese companies are very active to try to play major games to gain a bigger role in Iran.”

Iran has the world’s second largest natural gas reserve, with approximately 16% of the global total.

Total first expanded into Iran in 1997 with a contract granted by Iranian authorities to develop phases 2 & 3 of Iran’s South Pars gas field. Covering an area of more than 1,300 square kilometers, South Pars is the world’s largest gas reservoir and is shared by Iran and Qatar. The Iranian part is divided into 24 phases.

Total and its two partners, Gazprom and Petronas, invested more than $2 billion in Phase 2 & 3 of South Pars which began operations at the end of 2002.

Iran, the world’s fifth-biggest oil exporter and owner of the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia, on May 31 said that it plans to spend $12.3 billion in foreign currency and rial-denominated bonds during the next three years to fund the South Pars project.

MF/MRK

END

MNA