Investments of US $40 billion are needed to develop the remaining phases of the South Pars natural gas fields in Iran, a senior gas official has been quoted as saying.
The head of the state run Pars Oil and Gas Company, Ali Vakili, revealed the sum needs to be allocated to the development over the next ten years, reported Reuters.
Iran Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi has separately stated that the oil industry in Iran has around US $80 billion worth of incomplete projects.
“With the drastic drop in the price of crude oil (in 2008) the execution of many oil projects ceased,” the semi-official Mehr News Agency quoted Mirkazemi as saying.
Iran is the world’s fifth largest crude exporter but international sanctions and political pressure have kept foreign firms from investing in the country.
