Revolutionary Guards company pulls out of Iran natural gas project

Khatam Al-Anbia Construction Base has pulled out of the phases 15 and 16 of Southern Pars natural gas developments in Iran under pressure of international sanctions.

The Construction base which is linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps announced that in the current situation, their involvement in the phases 15 and 16 of these developments “could compromise national interests.”

In reference to the US and Western sanctions against the company, Khatam Al-Anbia Construction Base noted that they will instead use their “strengths” in other national projects.

Khatam Al-Anbia Company has been put under US sanctions since May of 2010 and the United Nations Security Council also included it in the blacklist of its 1929 resolution against Iran starting June of this year for its ties to the Revolutionary Guards.

According to the UN resolution all the assets of this comaony in foreign banks will be frozen and its executives will be banned from travelling abroad.

Mehr news agency reports that the head of phases 15 and 16 of Southern Pars project has announced that the loss of Khatam Al-Anbia investment will not affect the progress of the project and the operation will continue with a different consortium.

Pars Oil and Gas Company has taken over the dry land development and purchase of equipment for the project from Khatam Al-Anbia Construction Base.

Khatam Al-Anbia Construction Base, a company linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was established after the Iran-Iraq War in the eighties and has been involved in many development projects in Iran from dam construction and water and energy delivery, to road building as well as oil and gas exports.