Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 12
By Fatih Karimov- Trend:
A French company will participate in a project for production of liquefied natural gas from flaring associated gas of Forouzan oil field, Roknoddin Javadi, Iran's deputy oil minister said.
Final talks are underway between two Iranian companies and a reputable French company on the issue, Javadi said, without disclosing the name of the companies, Mehr news agency reported Dec. 12.
A consortium of Iranian and French companies will build Iran's first FLNG (floating liquefied natural gas) plant to gather flaring associated gas from Forouzan (shared with Saudi Arabia) oil field to liquefy and export, he added.
The plant's capacity is projected to be one million ton per year of LNG production, Javadi said.
The FLNG vessel as well as ship for transferring the LNG will be provided by Iranian and French investors, meanwhile the National Iranian Oil Company will be in charge of marketing and sale of the LNG cargoes, he explained.
Iran had earlier contracts with Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, Spain's Repsol and France's Total, to build three LNG plants, but those companies abandoned the projects in 2010 due to international sanctions.
Tehran sees LNG as becoming more viable than piped gas, which requires a great deal of time and high costs to reach Europe.
Further, the country plans to build the capacity to export 40 million tons a year of LNG, which is super-cooled to minus 162 degrees Celsius for shipment by special tankers.
Iran possesses 33.8 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, making it number one in the world, while the country wants to increase gas production from current 660 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) to about 1,100 mcm/d by 2019.
