{"id":12184,"date":"2018-08-20T20:23:37","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T20:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12184"},"modified":"2018-08-20T20:23:37","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T20:23:37","slug":"french-energy-giant-total-quits-lucrative-iran-gas-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12184","title":{"rendered":"French energy giant Total quits lucrative Iran gas project"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

French energy giant Total confirmed it is withdrawing from a multibillion-dollar gas project<\/a> in Iran after it failed to obtain a waiver from US sanctions.<\/p>\n

Total signed a deal worth $4.8bn in July 2017\u00a0<\/span>to develop a field off Iran’s southern coast as the lead partner alongside the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Iran’s Petropars.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Total has notified the Iranian authorities of its withdrawal from the contract following the 60-day deadline for obtaining a potential waiver from the US authorities,” the company told AFP news agency on Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Despite the backing of the French and European authorities, such a waiver could not have been obtained.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Iranian <\/span>Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said the company had notified authorities of its decision to exit the deal.<\/p>\n

“Total has officially left the agreement for the development of phase 11 of South Pars,” Zanganeh said, emphasising the dire state of Iran’s oil-and-gas facilities, which he said were “worn out” and in need of renovation that Iran<\/a> could not afford.<\/p>\n

The deal was meant to bring in state-of-the-art technology to tap the gas field, which Iran could then replicate on surrounding ones.<\/p>\n

The United States<\/a> said in May it was abandoning the 2015 nuclear deal<\/a> with Iran and other nations, and reimposing sanctions on Tehran in two phases in August and November, with the second targeting the country’s vital oil-and-gas sector.<\/p>\n

Total has $10bn of capital in US assets, and US banks are involved in 90 percent of its financing operations, meaning i<\/span><\/span>t would have been highly vulnerable to US penalties for remaining in Iran.<\/p>\n

Technology missing<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Zanganeh said the process to find a replacement for Total was under way.<\/p>\n

But it is unlikely that CNPC or Iran’s own firms can take over the project, said Homayoun Falakshahi, an energy analyst for Wood Mackenzie in London.<\/p>\n

“The technology Total was hoping to implement would have been world-first, using electricity to compress the gas,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The other complication is that it needs huge platforms. Iran can build 5,000 to 7,000-tonne platforms. This would have been 20,000 tonnes.”<\/p>\n

The urgent need for investment to upgrade Iran’s dilapidated energy infrastructure was a key motivator behind its decision to join the 2015 nuclear deal.<\/p>\n

Some conservatives in Iran oppose foreign involvement in the strategic energy sector and have frustrated plans to develop attractive investment contracts.<\/p>\n

As a result, the Total deal was the only major investment project finalised after the nuclear deal came into force.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French energy giant Total confirmed it is withdrawing from a multibillion-dollar gas project in Iran after it failed to obtain a waiver from US sanctions. Total signed a deal worth $4.8bn in July 2017\u00a0to develop a field off Iran’s southern coast as the lead partner alongside the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Iran’s Petropars.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}