The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed on Monday a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a consortium that includes Japan’s engineering group Toyo to revamp the facilities and upgrade gas production at the Salman field in the Persian Gulf.
Iranian company Petropars is also part of the consortium.
Based on the MoU, NIOC, Petropars, and Toyo will finance studies for the rehabilitation project, but if they decide to turn the MoU into a deal, it would be an Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Finance (EPCF) contract, with the Japanese firm financing the project, Gholamreza Manouchehri, deputy for development and engineering at NIOC said.
According to a news agency, the Salman oil and gas field that straddles the Iranian-UAE maritime border holds 473 million barrels of oil and 5.2 bcm of natural gas.
Earlier this month, France’s energy major Total SA signed a contract to develop phase 11 of the South Pars gas field in Iran—the world’s biggest gas field—marking the first Iranian Petroleum Contract (IPC) with a Western major since most sanctions on Iran were lifted.
Last Saturday, Manouchehri said that the Rouhani administration had tasked the company to sign 10 oil and gas deals with energy majors by the end of the current Iranian year, March 20, 2018.
Image Source: The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)