Official: Foreign firms eying investment in Iran gas industry

Tehran, Jan 3, IRNA – Companies from France, Germany, Britain, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia are negotiating investment projects in the Iranian gas industry, an official said. Head of the investment committee of the Iran National Gas Company (INGC) Asghar Soheilipour said that his company was offering information about Iranˈs top priority gas projects to potential foreign and domestic investors. Outlining the investment procedure in the Iranian gas industry, he said that his organization needed 30 billion dollars of investment to complete its projects. He noted that the INGC has already proposed projects and is ready for cooperation with foreign and domestic investors. He referred to development plans of Ilam refinery and a number of oil pipelines as the projects parts of which have already completed but still need further investment. The official referred to Mitsubishi, LG and Samsung as corporations having announced readiness for making investments in Iran gas projects. There are also companies from Japan and Italy which are keen to start work in the Iranian gas projects even before the annulment of sanctions, he added. The NIGC official also noted that Russian companies too have grown eager in investing in Iranˈs gas projects using the finance method since they halted work in eastern Europe and Syria due to the particular situations there. As for sanctions, he said they could never stop Iranˈs production and export activities, given the fact that the country has so far managed to meet its commitments on due time. However, he said, the sanctions caused more expenses for the country and made it a bit difficult to find the best contractors for the projects the easy way. /end