It will take a year to finalise a $20 billion deal to develop Iran's northern Pars gas field with China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), a newspaper quoted an Iranian energy official as saying.
A preliminary deal for the project was announced in December. Chinese industry executives have said an investment of this size take months or years to finalise, like talks over Iranian energy agreements with other companies.
'Finalising the $20 billion northern Pars contract for signing needs one year,' the daily Ayande-ye No quoted Akbar Torkan, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, as saying. Pars is a unit of state-owned National Iranian Oil Company.
Previous reports have valued the deal at $16 billion. Torkan, who had said talks on the project would continue in February, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Completing development of the northern Pars gas field would take eight years, the newspaper said.
CNOOC, which leads China's fledgling LNG industry and is the parent of Hong Kong and New York-listed CNOOC, will own 50 per cent of the LNG produced in this field. China's Sinopec Group, parent of Sinopec, is meanwhile negotiating a deal to develop Iran's Yadavaran field and to buy 10 million tonnes of LNG per year for 25 years.
Initial agreement was reached in 2004, but the two sides are still discussing a final deal.
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