In May, Royal Dutch Shell said it would pull out of developing another phase of the South Pars block.
Most of its efforts are concentrated in the South Pars gas field where it holds high percentages in various exploration and development projects.
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Included in these are projects at Kharg Island and Dorood field, projects at the Balal oil field and a 40% stake in the South Pars natural gas field.
The rest comes from spots like Azerbaijan, Angola, Algeria and Iran, where it weathered a bribery scandal in 2004 and is developing the giant South Pars gas field.
Meanwhile, the head of Total, Christophe de Margerie, told the Financial Times the company's planned development of the huge South Pars gas field in southern Iran would not go ahead.
Total's return on its 1997 South Pars project was 18% to 19% a year, says London consultant Varzi, because authorities were desperate to sign a deal after Conoco pulled out.
Spain's Repsol confirmed on Monday that it had withdrawn from a contract it won with Royal Dutch Shell to develop the South Pars gas field in southern Iran, Reuters news agency reported.
China is the most important investor in Iranian exploration and extraction operations, and has been selected to develop the Azadegan and Yadavaran oil and natural gas fields, and the South Pars field.
Total has been engaged in talks about developing Phase 11, one of 23 fields in the potentially lucrative South Pars block and has a memorandum of understanding with the National Iranian Oil Company.
It was scheduled to come to the U.S. bond market days after signing onto the French-led consortium to develop the South Pars off-shore gas fields of Iran in violation of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act.
The company is one of five worldwide in a joint-venture to develop the South Pars offshore gas field (the others include companies from close U.S. allies France and Canada as well as Indonesia and Russia).
This is a hard move for China given that it has invested billions in Iranian oil and gas fields like Yadaravan and South Pars and billions more in refineries, while western companies have been forced to stay away.
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Last week, however, Shell Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer told participants in a conference call that his firm and a Spanish oil company, Repsol, have entered into a preliminary understanding to help the Iranian regime develop part of its vast South Pars natural gas reserve.
Not long ago it was hospitable to foreigners: As oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, an ally of powerful former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in the late 1990s pushed through billions of dollars in agreements with Shell, France's Total, Italy's Eni, Schlumberger and Halliburton to develop large and technically challenging projects, such as Iran's huge South Pars field, which is believed to hold 7% of the world's natural gas supply.
Not too long ago it was hospitable to foreigners: As oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, an ally of powerful former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in the late 1990s pushed through billions of dollars in agreements with Shell, France's Total, Italy's Eni, Schlumberger and Halliburton to develop large and technically challenging projects, such as Iran's huge South Pars field, which is believed to hold 7% of the world's natural gas supply.
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