Revolutionary Guards takes over Iran gas investments

Iran Minister of Oil announced that two phases of Iran’s Southern Pars natural gas developments have been awarded to a domestic consortium at the value of five million dollars.

After nine years of negotiations with British-Dutch company Shell and Spanish company Repsol YPF concerning the phase 13 and 14 of this development, Iran Minister of Oil has ended talks with these companies and started negotiations with domestic companies for investment in these projects.

Mehr News Agency reports that “Khatam-ol-Nabia Consortium” consists of five major oil and gas contractors, according to the Ministry of Oil.

Khatam-ol-Nabia base company, connected with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, along with another four affiliated companies are under economic sanctions by the US since last year over disputes regarding Iran's nuclear activities.

Reportedly the members of the consortium have not been finalized and more companies may be joining the development project.

Iran’s collaboration with the foreign oil companies was stalled after they stopped exporting petrol to Iran in anticipation of US backed sanctions against Iran.

Iran supplies about a third of its domestic petrol needs through imports due to limited capacity of its oil refineries.