Iran’s Supervisory Board Approves Gas Deal with France’s Total
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Spokesman for the Iranian Administration Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said the country’s Oil Contracts Supreme Supervisory Board has approved the $5 billion gas deal recently signed between the Islamic Republic and France’s energy giant Total.
Speaking to reporters at his weekly press conference in Tehran on Tuesday, Nobakht said the board, which comprises the representatives of the three branches of government and is tasked with monitoring the country’s major oil and gas contracts, has reviewed the gas deal with Total and China’s CNPC.
He further said the members of the supervisory board unanimously approved the contract in a session held on Monday.
After the deal was signed, some parliamentarians, experts and top figures in oil and gas industry voiced their strong opposition to it, saying Total has hatched “a sinister plot” against the Islamic Republic.
Total and China’s National Petroleum Company (CNPC) struck the $5 billion agreement with Iran on July 3.
The agreement was signed at a ceremony in Tehran attended by Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh, Total’s CEO Patrick Pouyanne and senior officials from China’s CNPC and Iran’s Petropars.
Total holds a 50.1 interest in the South Pars project with state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation owning 30 percent and Petropars 19.9 percent.
The development of Phase 11 of the South Pars project will cost up to $5 billion.
The vast offshore gas field is shared between Iran and Qatar, where Total is also a major player in gas production as well as in oil and refining. Tehran calls the giant field South Pars while Doha calls it the North Field.
