it's pointless to talk to indian....they backed out of the deal due to pressure, and because americans have offered them civilian nuclear energy deal.
We should move on. There is MUCH MUCH more to gain if energy hungry China joins the deal, and they seem very eager to join (as per recent reports).
I-P-C pipeline should be the new reality.....forget indian.
Some old Articles but worth considering in respect of Iran's Natural Gas, as Gas by Pipeline or in LNG form :
LNG Shortages Are Building Up; Iran & Russia Struggle To Match Qatar JVs:.
Lower oil prices affecting the market value of LNG and a global credit crunch have combined to cause promoters of new LNG export ventures to postpone or even cancel such projects. As a result, a shortage of LNG on both sides of Suez will be building up in the coming years. The spot price of LNG exceeded $21/m BTU in September; but it has since fallen by more than 50%. For their part, Iran and Russia are struggling to over-take - or even match - Qatar's LNG export capacity which is the largest in the world.
In its World Energy Outlook 2008 out recently, the IEA says: "Shortfalls in the availability of LNG could push up prices and encourage the faster development of indigenous resources in importing regions". Up to 2012 there will be a "massive expansion in LNG supply". Any new surge in investment in LNG production is unlikely to increase output of the fuel before 2015 because of the time needed to build the liquefaction trains. The shortage could occur earlier.
World-wide LNG flows have doubled in the past decade and now meet 7% of total world demand for natural gas. The volume of LNG trade will rise to 340 BCM/year in 2015 and 680 BCM/year in 2030. It was 201 BCM/year in 2006. This surge in LNG trading will be led by demand in the EU, where indigenous gas production is declining.
By 2030, the EU will depend on gas imports through LNG ships and pipelines, to meet 86% of demand. The IEA says EU gas imports will rise to 580 BCM/year by 2030 from 305 BCM/y in 2006. Most of the additional export volumes in the period to 2030 will come from the Middle East and Africa.
Iran has at least four different LNG export ventures for a total capacity of almost 50m t/y. It has been promoting them since the 1990s and is likely to keep struggling to have at least one of them off the ground. But a combination of US, EU and UNSC sanctions have rendered these and other energy-related Iranian JVs un-bankable. Without a US liquefaction process, which Tehran cannot get, none of its LNG ventures is likely to materialise.
Yet Tehran last week announced it was about to sign a multi-billion-dollar agreement with the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) as part of a drive to revitalise its LNG plans. Officials from the state-owned National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) and CNPC were on Nov. 28 quoted as saying talks were at an advanced stage - part of a renewed push towards attracting fresh investment to the Shi'ite theocracy's embattled energy sector.
NIOC Deputy Director For Investment Hojatollah Ghanimi-Fard said a deal with CNPC to have a stake in Phase-11 of the offshore South Pars gas field and a share in the associated Pars LNG consortium, was imminent. He added: "We will make an announcement to the market shortly with respect to CNPC. There are also talks ongoing with other partners, which we hope to conclude within the next month". MEED on Nov. 28 quoted a CNPC executive as saying the talks remained at a sensitive stage, but that they were likely to be concluded within weeks, adding: "We are looking at a number of options for stakes in these projects but there is still work to do on the [finance] side, given the current economic climate".
Under the proposed deal, CNPC will take at least 25% and operating rights on Phase-11 of the South Pars field along-side the JV's existing share-holders, Petronas of Malaysia and Total of France. CNPC is likely to secure a smaller stake as part of the Pars LNG consortium, which aims to produce 10m t/y of LNG from Phase-11 of the field. Under the consortium's ownership structure, NIOC holds 50%, Total has 30% and Petronas has 20%. If CNPC is to join the group, either NIOC or Total are expected to lower their share-holdings in Pars LNG, but Petronas is expected to retain its full interest in the project.
Uncertainty, however, still surrounds Total's role in the projects. In May, Total told Tehran it could not commit to the development of Iran's energy industry because of US-led sanctions, caused its nuclear and regional ambitions.
Work is continuing on the Iran LNG project, a further 10.8m t/y JV, which is 49% owned by NIOC's unit National Iranian Gas Export Co (NIGEC), with two NIOC pension funds sharing the remaining 51%. WorleyParsons of Australia is carrying out work on the front-end engineering and design (FEED), while some engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work is understood to be in the preliminary stages. In December 2007, China's other state-owned group Sinopec signed a deal to develop the Yadavaran oilfield in Iran to boost output to 200,000 b/d, from 85,000 b/d, while the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) is negotiating a $16 bn integrated E&P/LNG project to develop the North Pars gas field and export the gas in LNG form to China.
Iran previously sought help from neighbouring Arab Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states for up to $20 bn in private investment in its LNG projects after major international oil companies (IOCs) claimed UNSC sanctions were stopping them from investing. The Iranian Petroleum Ministry says major IOCs may be retained for technical services. But a compromise may be found by injecting funds from GCC investors, to ensure the projects go ahead.
However, none of the six GCC states or their major investors would respond to repeated Iranian efforts to secure their support for their LNG projects.
Even Kuwait, keen on importing LNG and about to commit capital for the construction of an LNG-receiving and re-gasification terminal in the emirate, has declined to respond favourably to the Iranian proposal.
Tehran has rejected a proposal for South Pars gas to be piped to the tiny emirate's Ras Laffan liquefaction centre for export in LNG form. Qatar is the world's biggest exporter of LNG, with plans to expand its LNG export capacity to 83m t/y by 2015 or before. By then, Qatar will have become the world's biggest exporters of NGLs, as well, with up to 14m t/y to be allocated for the purpose.
The Russian business daily Kommersant recently quoted an un-named Russian official as saying that Gazprom, Qatar Liquefied Gas Co. Ltd. and NIOC aimed to set up a venture to produce gas from South Pars and liquefy it at Ras Laffan. But Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari said: "We have agreed to set up a joint company to develop projects in the three countries or any other place in the world, but we do not accept that Iran's gas will be exported to Qatar to be turned into LNG. The Islamic Republic agrees that Qatar and Russia will invest in South Pars and the LNG will be produced in Iran on partnership basis".
This reflects national pride, with Qatar regarded as being too small on which Iran to depend. There is the more complicated issue of South Part being part of Qatar's North Field - an offshore super-giant with the world's biggest reserves of natural gas. Qatar has repeatedly turned down Iranian requests for a joint development of both the North Field and South Pars. But in recent years, Tehran has been accusing Qatar of damaging the South Pars reservoirs by its "excessive" extraction of gas from the North Field.
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Iran has made several Agreements with China for supply of LNG as Early as March 2004. Here is one of them :
China signs LNG contract with Iran.(LNG)(liquefied natural gas)
China Chemical Reporter, March, 2004
Zhuhai Zhenrong, one of four government-backed crude oil importers in China, has agreed to buy more than 110 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Iran over 25 years, which could be the largest LNG purchase deal in the world.
The company signed a framework agreement earlier this month to buy 2.5 million tons of LNG annually from Iran starting in 2008, the company announced in a statement posted on the website of the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission on March 17.
The imports are expected to increase to 5 million tons a year starting in 2013. The contract is drawn up for 25 years.
The deal, worth more than an estimated US$20 billion, reflects China's growing appetite to secure enough energy from overseas to...
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Iran, China sign LNG deal: 12/1/06
TEHRAN, Dec. 1 (Mehr News Agency) Iran's Pars LNG Company and PetroChina Company signed a deal on Iranian LNG sales to China, a senior Iranian official said in Tehran on Friday.
"Under the contract that was signed here last Tuesday night, the Chinese company will buy 3 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually from Iran," official news agency IRNA quoted the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) as saying.
Nosratollah Seifi explained that the exchange is determined based on crude oil daily price. "However, the formula can be revised to moderate the price over different periods," he added.
The official further said that the contract was signed in the presence of a high-ranking delegation of officials from Chinese oil companies affiliated to the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
On the Pars LNG Company, Seifi explained that Iran, French Total, and Malaysian Petronas are the stockholders of the company. "It is in charge of Pars LNG Project, one of Iran's three main projects to produce LNG," he added.
He noted that Pars LNG, Iran's first ever and largest integrated oil and industrial project is close to Final Investment Decision (FID), expected to be implemented from mid 2007 on.
Meanwhile, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) on Friday said that Iran is holding talks with three Chinese companies over LNG sales.
Gholam-Hossein Nozari added that negotiations are concurrent. "But, final agreements are yet to be reached," Mehr News Agency reported him as saying.
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Here is one about China not willing to buy Iranian LNG as Price too high!
Iran, China Strike Oil and Gas Deal
By: AP | 14 Sep 2007 | 11:59 AM
Iran's interior minister said Friday his country has finalized oil and gas projects with China, adding that two-way trade was on target to hit $20 billion (14.4 billion euros) this year among robust commercial ties.
Speaking to reporters after meetings in Beijing, Mostafa Pour Mohammadi gave few details but indicated progress had been made. "We have many big projects on the table," Pour Mohammadi said.
"And in my talks and sessions we finalized our parts and projects in oil fields, gas fields and investing and transporting of fuel between the two countries," the minister said.
Economic ties covered areas ranging from power station construction and mining to the building of subways and automobile plants.
"This year, trade will hit $20 billion (14.4 billion euros) and will develop in other fields," Pour Mohammadi said.
Despite the minister's comments, energy deals between Iran and China have repeatedly been held up over price and revenue sharing.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., best known as Sinopec, said in April it does not plan to buy liquefied natural gas from Iran because the price is too high, but that it was discussing other cooperation.
China is scrambling to meet its growing energy needs, and Sinopec had earlier held talks about purchasing LNG from Iran, which has the world's second largest natural gas reserves.
Tehran has also been at odds with China's Sinopec over the development of the Yadavaran oil field because the company wanted a 15 percent return, and Iran something lower, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company, Gholam Hussein Nozari, told the official IRNA news agency in January.
While the United States is on a concerted campaign to discourage foreign energy companies from doing business in Iran, analysts say Iran's investment woes are its own fault because it fails to offer enticing deals.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed
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As such let us know when China takes Natural Gas from Iran in the form of LNG or by a Pipeline via Pakistan.
It shall be good news and is worth waiting for.
