In February, IOOC signed a $1bn energy investment deal with Poland's state-owned gas exploration and production company, PGNIG, although it remains uncertain whether the firm will win the overall contract (MEED 7:4:08).

The Lavan field is understood to have more than 6 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of recoverable gas. Iran discovered the field, which is under Lavan island, in the Gulf in 2003 (MEED 14:1:08).

IOOC says the first phase of the project involves drilling seven wells and producing 300 million cubic-feet-a-day (cf/d) of gas. Condensed fluid will then be transmitted to production facilities on Lavan island (MEED 6:12:07).

The second phase involves drilling six wells and constructing upstream and downstream installations, based on the production of 1 billion cf/d of gas.