Russ Oil-Gas

Feb. 20, 2008 - Kommersant - Gazprom has reached an agreement with Iran on the development of the country's largest natural gas deposits, Southern Pars and Kish. The Russian monopoly will form one or more joint ventures with the National Iranian Gas Company. This is in spite of competition from the Chinese, with whom Iran negotiated the development of the Kish deposit in 2006 and 2007, and the possibility of Iran's supplying as for the Nabucco pipeline. According to the Iranian Isna information agency, an agreement will be signed in April or May between Gazprom and the Iranian Oil Ministry. The deposit on the island of Kish has reserves of 1.37 trillion cu. m. Gazprom will also agree to build a gas reservoir in Iran and the parties are discussing the construction of an oil refinery in Armenia on the Iranian border. Gazprom began working on the second and third (out of 18) blocks at Southern Pars in 1997 in a consortium with TotalElf (40%) and Petronas (30%). The complex was sold to National Iranian Oil Co. for $2 billion in 2004. The reserved at that deposit are 10 trillion cu. m. Observers note that the present undertaking may be complicated by international sanctions.