Iran signed new contracts in the gas sector worth $6.5 billion; a senior official was quoted.
Precise details were not immediately available, but industry watchers have voiced doubts over the deals, saying they were “mainly propaganda”.

In a statement designed to show Iran’s gas sector was not hampered by international sanctions, Javad Oji, Head of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) claimed several big pipeline and refinery deals had been signed in recent weeks.

“In the past week, the contract on the construction of two main Iranian pipelines taking Iranian gas to Europe and Pakistan was signed,” Oji was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr News Agency.

He put the total value of the contract at $2.5 billion, but did not say whom the contract was with.
“Recently, the agreement on the partnership of Saderat Bank in the construction of Bidboland gas refinery and Parsian refinery geared to the production of ethane at a value of $4 billion was signed,” he said.

Saderat, one of Iran’s five major state-owned banks, will have an 80% stake in the two projects, and NIGC will hold the rest.

Iran said it needs around $25 billion a year in oil and gas industry investment.
Meanwhile, state news agency IRNA reported an official of the state Pars Oil & Gas Company as saying Iran planned to invest $40 billion in the giant South Pars gas field in the Gulf in the course of the next five years.

Hossein Nosratzadeh said the total volume of the investment in the gas field, jointly held with Qatar, stands at some $30 billion.