Iran Puts ONGC Discovered Gas Field for Auction

In a bid to pressure India to invest in a Persian Gulf gas field, Iran has put ONGC-discovered Farzad-B gas field on a list of fields it plans to auction citing delays by the Indian firm in its development, reports news agency Press Trust of India.

ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas arm of state-owned ONGC, had in 2008 discovered the Farzad-B gas field in its Farsi exploration block in the Persian Gulf.

Under threat of sanctions, OVL did not sign the contract after a revised Master Development Plan (MDP) in 2010. According to the Plan, the India firm was supposed to produce 60 per cent of the 21.68 trillion cubic feet of in-place gas reserves.

Iran, in February 2012, issued a one-month ultimatum to the OVL-led consortium over the development of a gas field.

For more than two years, it did not carry out the threat of cancelling allocation of the Farsi block to OVL, Press Trust said.

Tehran has now put the field on the list of blocks it wants to auction in future, sources with direct knowledge of the development said.

It has however not yet cancelled OVL’s exploration license for the Farsi block which gives it the right to develop the discoveries it has made, Press Trust added.

Sources told the news agency that inclusion of the block in the list of areas Iran wants to auction is an attempt to pressurise New Delhi into investing in the project.