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The French supermajor Total has been dropped as a potential developer of phase 11 of Iran’s vast South Pars gas field according to an Iranian state-controlled television channel.
Reuters reported that Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, deputy head of National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) informed a state-television channel of his company’s decision, but did not give the reason.
Total’s involvement has been questioned for some time with both parties calling off negotiations since a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the company and NIOC.
In June of this year Iran announced that China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) had been awarded the US$4.7 billion deal to develop phase 11.
“Iran is finally making real its years-old threats to relieve some of the prevaricating Western IOCs of their upstream development contracts, in order to get investment and development going,” Samuel Ciszuk, IHS Global Insight’s Middle East energy analyst said at the time.
Possible sanctions regarding the ever-increasing nuclear developments in Iran has made the Gulf state a no-go zone for many western countries during the last two to three years.
