In a major corporate setback, India on Monday lost the ONGC Videsh Ltd-discovered Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf after Iran awarded a contract for developing the significant reserve to a local company.
"The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a contract worth $1.78 billion with Petropars Group for the development of Farzad B Gas Field in the Persian Gulf," the Iranian oil ministry's official news service Shana reported. "The deal was signed on Monday, May 17, in a ceremony held in the presence of Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh in Tehran," it further added.
The gas field holds 23 trillion cubic feet of in-place reserves, of which about 60 per cent is recoverable. It also holds gas condensates of about 5,000 barrels per billion cubic feet of gas.
The buyback contract signed on Monday envisages daily production of 28 million cubic meters of sour gas over five years, Shana said.
ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), had in 2008 discovered a giant gas field in the Farsi offshore exploration block.
OVL and its partners had offered to invest up to $11 billion for the development of the discovery, which was later named Farzad-B.
The 3,500 square kilometer Farsi block sits in a water depth of 20-90 metres on the Iranian side of the Persian Gulf.
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