TEHRAN - Iran says it has
revived a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) project that delayed for years because of American sanctions on the Iranian petroleum sector.
A subsidiary of the Iranian Oil Ministry said that it had obtained the government permit for an LNG production train that will have an output of 5 million tons per year (t/yr).
The project, dubbed Iran LNG, is one of the three long-delayed LNG projects in Iran. It was in fact a third project approved over the past decade to enable Iran to start exports of natural gas on ships rather than through pipelines.
However, the project, which was initially planned to reach an output target of 10.8 mln t/yr, hit a snag in 2018 when the United States pulled out of an international deal on Iran’s nuclear program and imposed sanctions on the country.
The sanctions prevented a German supplier from exporting equipment needed in Iran LNG trains despite the fact that all preparations for the project had been completed by early 2017.
The report on Oil Ministry news service Shana said that Iran’s Oil Pension Fund, which owns the Iran LNG, had carried out major changes to the management structure of the project over the past 10 months.
The report did not elaborate on whether the project will benefit from services of foreign companies. However, previous reports published in the local media had indicated that the Iran Liquefied Natural Gas Company (ILC), which is in charge of the project, had contracted the top domestic energy engineering firm MAPNA for a series of works under Iran LNG.