India and Iran may soon be able to finalise the long pending deal on Farzad B oil block. The exploration in the oil block was awarded to India by Iran but has been stuck due to financial issues. The oil field was discovered by ONGC-Videsh Limited (OVL).

On Wednesday, on the sidelines of the Energy Summit, Oil Minister of Iran, Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, expressed hope that the two sides are closely working to finalise the modalities. “After the visit of Iranian President (Hassan Rouhani) relation between the two countries is getting closer and closer. The talks on Farzad B is going ahead very wll. I and Indian minister (Dharmendra Pradhan) have instructed companies to try and finalise main issues in next two months. The master development plan and timing schedule is the main issue that has to be sorted out,” the minister said.

Iran had previously conditioned granting rights to develop the Farzad-B fields to OVL on Indian firms buying all of the gas produced at the imported-LNG equivalent rate.

This proposition, which involved an investment of $11 billion in first developing the field and then setting up a facility to convert it into liquid gas (liquefied natural gas or LNG) for shipping to India, was considered very expensive.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, Thursday, 12 April 2018 | PNS | New Delhi