India’s government is in “serious” negotiations with Iran on securing the development rights for Farzad-B Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, deputy oil minister for international affairs said.
Amirhossein Zamaninia made the statement on Tuesday on the sidelines of a meeting with an Indian delegation in Tehran, headed by Sanjay Sudhir, joint secretary of India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Shana reported.
Referring to the extended talks with the Indian side on the Farzad-B field, Zamaninia urged India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) to speed up the finalization of its financial model for developing the gas field.
Sudhir said that the two sides are in the process of putting together a better format for the financial and technical terms of the project, but declined to say if and when the final agreement is possible.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told Mehr News Agency on Sunday that that ONGC’s last financial proposal for the project was not acceptable.
Iran has set a deadline for the Indian firm to submit a reasonable development plan.
“We won’t wait any longer for the Indians and if they fail to propose a sound financial proposal in the meeting planned for this month in Tehran, we will change our mind," Zanganeh said without elaboration.
Farzad-B Gas Field holds an estimated 508 billion cubic meters of in-place reserves, of which 370 bcm is recoverable.
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