Iran signs deal to develop world's largest gas field in Persian Gulf region

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and a consortium involving France's Total, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Iran's Petropars signed a major deal Tuesday to develop the second phase of Iran's South Pars gas field.

The contract for the development of the gas field in the Persian Gulf region is worth 4.8 billion U.S. dollars.

Iran expects to produce as much as 56 million cubic meters per day of natural gas from the field once it is in full swing, according to Press TV.

According to the accord, the developers will provide all investments in the project.

"50.1 percent of the investment would come from Total, while China and Iran will take care of the remaining 30 percent and 19.9 percent, respectively," Gholamreza Manouchehri, the deputy head of the NIOC, was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

Total was negotiating over the development of the same project with the NIOC before the U.S.-led sanctions drove it out of Iran's oil sector projects in 2012 over Iran's controversial nuclear program.

Total was also negotiating with the NIOC over the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Iran before 2012. However, it was abandoned after the U.S.-led sanctions banned investments by foreign companies in Iran's oil industry.

Tuesday's deal marks the returning of major international companies to the energy projects of the Islamic republic following the clinch of a nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers in July last year.

On Monday, Iran called on the domestic and foreign investors to engage in more than 40 projects for the development of Iran's oil and gas fields, semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The NIOC made the call at the opening ceremony of the 8th Khouzestan Oil Industry Equipment Fair.

In a message at the event, the NIOC's Managing Director Ali Kardor said that 40 investment projects had been specified for investments from inside and outside Iran.

The South Pars/North Dome field is a natural gas condensate field located in the Persian Gulf. It is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar.

According to the International Energy Agency, the field holds an estimated 1,800 trillion cubic feet (51 trillion cubic meters) of in-situ natural gas and some 50 billion barrels of natural gas condensate.

The nuclear agreement reached between the world powers and Iran in July 2015 and was implemented in January has resulted in the lift of sanctions against Iran's energy sector and has raised hopes here to reengage the latter with the global economy and develop its energy resources.

Iran is also in talks with Danish business conglomerate, Maersk Group, to extract oil from the world's largest South Pars gas field, according to Press TV.

Negotiations have been held with Maersk for the development of the second phase of the South Pars oil layer, said Gholam-Reza Manuchehri, the deputy managing director of the NIOC.

"Using modern technologies and horizontal drilling in view of the oil at the South Pars layer are the most important development scenarios for this oil field, which is shared with Qatar," Manuchehri said.

Reportedly, the NIOC plans to drill 300 wells at the South Pars oil layer, which requires Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) and Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technologies to reach crude oil.