Phases nine through 12 of Iran’s South Pars gas field will be put up for tender in two weeks time, said Assadollah Salehiforuz, head of the state-run South Pars Oil and Gas Company, speaking in Tehran on Monday.
Quoted in the Khaleej Times, Salehiforuz said the project would be contracted out either in the form of a buy-back agreement, or by way of a new investment method that will be guaranteed by Iran's central bank or oil ministry. In the case of the latter arrangement, the winner of the tender will be expected to finance 80 percent of cost of the project—including all design work, engineering, procurement and installation—and the South Pars Oil and Gas Company would return the investment money at the end of the contract.
According to Salehiforuz, phases six through eight of South Pars had been awarded to Iran's Petropars, which is a company created by the National Iranian Oil Company's employees' pension and retirement funds. Salehiforuz said $5 billion would be invested in these phases of the project over a five-year period. They will produce some 3 billion cubic feet of gas, 120,000 barrels of condensates and 1.2 million tons of LNG.
Petropars is also a junior partner in a joint venture with Italy's ENI to develop phases four and five of South Pars, which are expected to produce 2 billion cubic feet of gas and 50 million cubic meters of LNG.
A consortium led by Total-led consortium is developing phases two and three.
The South Pars gas fields are estimated to hold 12 trillion cubic feet of gas, or 7 percent of total world reserves. It will be developed in 25 phases. The South Pars Oil and Gas Company has also begun exploration work to develop an oil layer of South Pars, which is thought to contain 5 billion barrels of crude. — (Albawaba-MEBG)
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
