ONGC-discovered Farzad-B gas field: Iran wanted to involve India at later stage, says MEA
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that the involvement of the Indian consortium is underway and the authorities are in touch with their Iranian counterpart
PremiumDays after India lost the ONGC Videsh Ltd-discovered Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Thursday said that Iran wanted to involve India at a later stage.
"Iran had decided to develop the Farzad B gas field on its own and wanted to involve India at a later stage," the MEA said today.
Bagchi also informed that the involvement of the Indian consortium is underway and the authorities are in touch with their Iranian counterpart.
Iran has recently awarded a contract for developing the significant reserve to a local company.
"The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a contract worth $1.78 billion with Petropars Group for the development of Farzad B Gas Field in the Persian Gulf," the Iranian oil ministry's official news service Shana reported.
"The deal was signed on Monday, May 17, in a ceremony held in the presence of Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh in Tehran," it further said.
The Farzad B gas field holds 23 trillion cubic feet of in-place reserves, of which about 60% is recoverable. It also holds gas condensates of about 5,000 barrels per billion cubic feet of gas.
The buyback contract signed envisages daily production of 28 million cubic meters of sour gas over five years, Shana added.
ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), had in 2008 discovered a giant gas field in the Farsi offshore exploration block.
OVL and its partners had offered to invest up to $11 billion for the development of the discovery, which was later named Farzad-B.
The 3,500 square kilometer Farsi block sits in a water depth of 20-90 metres on the Iranian side of the Persian Gulf.
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