Iran Decides to Withdraw Offer to Indian Firms on Farzad B Gas Field Development

Iran has decided to withdraw offer to Indian companies to participate in the development of Farzad B gas field, Fars News Agency reported Saturday.

The moves is result of 14 year delay in fulfilling commitments by the Indian companies.

Late last month, Press Trust of India reported that India has renewed pitch to get rights to develop ONGC-discovered Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf.

An Indian delegation, led by Ashutosh Jindal, the director of India's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, visited Tehran last month with a package of proposals to convince the Iranian officials to sign a contract with Indian firms, Fars News Agency reported.

However, Iranian Oil Ministry sources told the Fars News Agency that Tehran hasn't accepted the offer and has decided to withdraw its offer to Indian contractors to develop Farzad B gas field and plans to put the project to tender.

ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas arm of state-owned ONGC, had in 2008 discovered the Farzad-B gas field. Due to threat of sanctions, the Indian company did not sign the contract after submitted a revised Master Development Plan (MDP) for producing 60 per cent of the 21.68 trillion cubic feet of in-place gas reserves in 2010, Press Trust reported.

State refiner Indian Oil Corp (IOC) too has 40 per cent stake, while the remaining 20 per cent is with Oil India Ltd (OIL).

In February 2012, Iran issued a one-month ultimatum to the OVL-led consortium over the development of a gas field. However, for more than two years, it did not carry out the threat of cancelling allocation of the Farsi block to OVL. But last year put the field on the list of blocks it wants to auction in future.