Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

Reuters: Shell, Total must finalize gas deals by June -Iran

Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:21pm BST 

TEHRAN, Oct 17 (Reuters) – France’s Total (TOTF.PA) and Royal Dutch Shell

Iran, with the world’s second largest gas reserves after Russia, had previously warned the French energy major not to bow to political pressure to steer clear of the Islamic Republic.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called last month for tougher international sanctions against Iran’s disputed nuclear work and warned Total and gas firm Gaz de France (GAZ.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) to stop investing in OPEC’s second-biggest oil producer.

“Total and Shell have only until June 2008 to finalize their deals,” oil ministry web site Shana quoted the managing director of Pars Oil and Gas company, Ali Vakili, saying on Tuesday. Shana carried his comments on Wednesday.

“In the past few days and in order to finalize the deals … we gave an ultimatum to Total and Shell and if we don’t reach an agreement with them we will not extend the time for talks,” Vakili said.

Both Shell and Total have said rising industry costs had delayed their multi-billion dollar investments in Iran’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, which would be fed by the giant South pars gas field.

The Anglo-Dutch company has a preliminary deal to develop part of the South Pars gas field, despite Washington urging its allies not to invest in Iran because of nuclear work it suspects is aimed at building bombs. Tehran denies the charge.

Total agreed to take on the project to build Iran’s first LNG export terminal in February 2004, with an initial start date of 2009 that has since been pushed back to 2011 after years of wrangling over terms.

Iran initially said the project was worth $2 billion, but construction costs have since spiralled throughout the energy sector.

Iran’s caretaker Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said in September a price in excess of $11 billion quoted by Total was too high for Iran and that his country could easily find replacements.

“We are having intensive negotiation with them (Total and Shell) in this regard,” Vakili said.

© Reuters2007All rights reserved.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.