Significant delays are expected to the award of contracts for phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars gas field development project amid ongoing uncertainty about US sanctions, according to industry sources.

“We aren’t expecting any major announcements regarding South Pars until there is a bit more clarity on the US stance regarding sanctions,” an industry source says.

European and US officials are expected to meet in Berlin this month for talks on Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

On 5 March, the UN atomic watchdog’s chief warned US President Donald Trump that the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal would be a “great loss”, giving a wide-ranging defence of the accord and his agency’s work under it.

The original deal was hailed as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb and lifted economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear programme.

It was signed by the US, China, France, Russia, the UK, Germany and the EU.

President Trump has threatened to pull out of the agreement unless European allies help “fix” it with a follow-up accord.

The offshore portion of phase 11 of South Pars is estimated to be worth $1bn.

The tendering process for fabrication of equipment and installations are underway on the project.

The scope of the offshore portion includes two stand-alone platforms, each equipped with the following facilities:

• 12 wells for producing 1,000 million cubic feet a day of gas
• Three-phase test separator (gas, condensate and water) for testing the wells
• Two three-phase separators (gas, condensate and water) for water separation
• Water treatment unit
• Tripod flare platform for emergency depressurising
• Two 32-inch sea lines, each 136 kilometres long, for transferring the gas produced in the platforms to the processing unit
• Two 4.5-inch sea lines for transferring glycol solution to the offshore platforms
• 36-inch gas condensate transfer pipeline, 4.5km long, and single buoy mooring to load and export produced condensates

The onshore portion of phase 11 is estimated to be worth $2.3bn.

The front-end engineering and design (feed) work for the onshore part is being carried out by London-based TechnipFMC.

Contractors are waiting for the main contract for the onshore portion to be tendered. The scope of the onshore portion includes:

• Slug catcher and condensate-water separators
• Gas condensate storage unit
• Monoethylene glycol regeneration unit
• Utilities
• Flaring systems