Iranian official denies Gazprom is pulling out of South Pars gas field

Published July 26th, 2000 - 03:00 GMT

(MEBG) – An Iranian oil official has denied reports that Russia’s Gazprom conglomerate is about to pull out from the consortium that is expanding the South Pars gas field, because of financial difficulties. According to the Iran Daily, the managing director of the Pars Oil &Gas Company said that "Total is the leader of the consortium and it has not told us anything about Gazprom's pullout—so I consider this report as baseless.”

The $2 billion offshore project in southern Iran involves Gazprom, Totalfina-Elf of France and Petronas of Malaysia. The local party, which was signed in September 1997, to the deal is the National Iranian Oil Company.

The southern fields are believed to contain 463.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, which is equal to about 6 percent of the global gas reserves and 50 percent of Iran’s domestic reserves.