India may be replaced with Russia in Farzad-B gas field project, warns Iran
According to Iran’s petroleum minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, India has failed to make an appropriate offer to finalise “development, financial and commercial” terms for the gas field.
Russia could replace India in a long-delayed plan to develop the Farzad-B gas field project, Iran’s petroleum minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Thursday.
“Russians,” Zanganeh was quoted as saying by Russia’s state-run Tass news agency when he was asked in Vienna who might enter the project if the deal with India fails.
The Indian side has failed to make an appropriate offer, he said.
Last year, Zanganeh had told the media that a financial proposal from ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of India’s biggest oil and gas explorer, for the Farzad-B project was “not acceptable”.
India and Iran have missed several deadlines to finalise “development, financial and commercial” terms for the gas field that was discovered by an Indian consortium led by ONGC Videsh in 2008. It has in-place gas reserves of 21.7 trillion cubic feet (tcf), of which 12.5 tcf are recoverable.
In March, ONGC Videsh informed Iran it intended to spend more than $3 billion for developing the gas field within five years. The firm’s managing director NK Verma told reporters in Mumbai it was waiting for feedback from Tehran.