Austria’s OMV, the biggest oil and gas group in Central Europe, announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran Saturday to jointly develop a gas field in the Gulf.
As part of its agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company, OMV will help develop parts of the South Pars gas field, one of the largest in the world, the group said in a statement.
It will also set up a liquefaction facility for the Iran Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project and conclude further supply agreements for LNG from Iran.
OMV said the agreement made sense given its involvement in building a terminal for LNG in Croatia. Iran’s large reserves make it a potential source of supply for the terminal, it added.
A consortium made up of Adria LNG – which comprises OMV, Total, Czech Republic’s RWE Transgas, Croatia’s INA, and Slovenia’s Geoplin – and Germany’s E.ON Ruhrgas is developing an LNG terminal on the Croatian island of Krk at a cost of 700 million euros ($951 million), due to become operational by 2011 or 2012.
The terminal will convert LNG, condensed to be more easily transported by ship as an alternative to pipelines, back to gas form.
OMV’s natural gas project will be its first of that kind in Iran although it is already involved in an oil venture there, OMV spokesman Thomas Huemer said Saturday.

(Middle East Times)