Baku, Azerbaijan, May 27
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Brazilian state oil company Petrobras has closed its office in Tehran.
Brazilian Ambassador to Tehran Santiago Irazabal Mourao said for the time being Petrobras has no intention to return to the Iranian market, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on May 27.
"Petrobras focused on developing oil and gas projects in Brazil," he added. "However, the company is obliged to its contract with the National Iranian Oil Company to explore for oil in the Persian Gulf," he noted.
In 2009, Petrobras said the exploration of an Iranian oil block in the Persian Gulf would prove its development to be not commercially feasible. Petrobras also said it had decided not to continue with an exploration project in the Caspian Sea in northern Iran.
Petrobras International Director Jorge Zelada said that the offshore Tusan block in the Persian Gulf was geologically unappealing, according to Reuters report.
Zelada also explained that the company would not begin exploration in a block in the Caspian Sea because it appeared to hold mostly natural gas, rather than oil, in an area that did not have the necessary infrastructure for gas production.
"There is no Petrobras exploration activity in the Caspian Sea. There was an opportunity that Petrobras reviewed and decided not to continue with," he said.
