CNPC yet to start operating Iran gas project

28 November 2018
CNPC took over Total's 50.1 per cent shares in South Pars 11 following the French firm's withdrawal from Iran

China’s state-owned energy firm China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has received project documents from France's Total, but the firm said it would still need time to study them before starting its expanded role in the $4.8bn South Pars phase 11 offshore gas field.

CNPC recently took over the 50.1 per cent stake held by France's Total on phase 11 of the South Pars (SP11) project, bringing its total shares in the project to 80.1 per cent.

Iran's Petropars owns the remaining 19.9 per cent shares.

Total quit the SP11 asset after failing to obtain a waiver from the economic sanctions imposed on Tehran by the US. The waiver would have allowed it to continue operating in the Islamic Republic.

Total was the only Western firm to finalise an investment deal in Iran’s energy sector following the 2015 nuclear deal, from which the US administration of President Donald Trump withdrew on 8 May.

Total signed the agreement in July 2016 to become the lead partner in the $4.8bn project to develop the SP11 offshore gas field, alongside CNPC and Iran’s state-run Petropars.

But after Washington quit the deal and pledged to fully reimpose sanctions on Iran’s energy industry on 4 November, Total said it would be impossible to continue unless it received a specific waiver from Washington.

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