Proposal to India would help country meet its huge energy needs...
Iran hopes its future is tied to India. Tehran's latest offer is equity in the gigantic South Pars gas field in return for New Delhi agreeing to channel the gas produced from the fields for meeting its huge energy needs.
"We have offered up to two phases out of the 28 phases of South Pars gas fields development provided New Delhi bring a market to sell gas produced from the fields," National Iranian Gas Export Co managing director R Javadi said.
The 3,700-square km South Pars gas field, which is an extension of the Qatar north dome gas field, is located 105 km southwest of the Assaluyeh port in the Persian Gulf. It has an estimated 14 trillion standard cubic metres of in-place gas reserves and 18 billion barrels of condensate in multiple strata.
The National Iranian Oil Company has decided to develop the field in phases to secure the increasing internal demand for natural gas. The country also plans to use it for re-injection in its oil fields and exports.
Javadi said one phase could produce anywhere between one billion cubic feet to 1.6 billion cubic feet of gas and could entail an investment of us $1.1 billion for its development.
The offer of equity in South Pars fields is the latest attempt by Tehran to get New Delhi moving on buying its natural gas either by laying a pipeline through Pakistan or in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Last year it had offered a discovered and a semi-discovered oilfield in lieu of India's purchase of 5 million tonnes of LNG per annum for 25 years.
