Iran mulling to award development of major gas field to Shell

Iran is considering to grant the development of its southern Kish gas field to the Netherlands' Shell, Press TV quoted a senior Iranian energy official as saying on Sunday.

A planned tender over the development of Kish gas field might be scrapped because no other company has approached Iran over the project, so Iran may start negotiations with Shell to this end, said Noureddin Shahnazizadeh, the managing director of the Petroleum Development and Engineering Company.

Shell was already studying the field based on an agreement that it signed with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Shahnazizadeh said, adding that the Dutch company is to complete its studies over Kish by July.

An Iranian company has also voiced interest to fund the development of Kish gas field, he said.

Kish gas field is located on Iran's Kish Island in the Persian Gulf. With a reservoir of 70 trillion cubic feet, the field is expected to produce about four million barrels of condensate as well as nine billion cubic meters of natural gas once fully developed. The gas field holds the country's largest reservoirs of natural gas after South Pars.

According to the report, Iran signed a basic agreement with Shell last December over studying the country's Kish gas field as well as South Azadegan and Yadavaran oil fields.

South Azadegan and Yadavaran are located in Iran's southwestern oil-rich province of Khouzestan and already have an early production of 40,000 bpd and 85,000 bpd, respectively. Endit