Deputy Emad Hossaini also said it may be necessary to fire the Chinese. But he didn’t say whom he thought could do the work if the Chinese were dismissed.
The Fars news agency quoted Hossaini as saying the delay was “partly due to giving the work to Chinese contractors,” since “we cannot award the work to contractors from other nations due to international sanctions.”
He said, “Under our planning, we should have had 30 percent progress in the South Pars projects by now, but we are very far behind.” Actually, by the data Fars provided, the projects should be 70 percent complete by now.
Fars reported last week that the nine South Pars projects awarded in June 2010 to Iranian companies as part of a $21 billion contract had progressed between only 13 percent and 23 percent over 24 months or 70 percent of the completion time of 35 months provided for in the contracts.
“If we continue like this, we will not finish on time,” Hossaini said.
Many of the projects were reassigned to Iranian firms following the pull-out of major Western firms, including France’s Total and the Anglo-Dutch Shell. The Iranian companies then subcontracted with Chinese firms to do the actual work.
“We had no choice but to resort to Chinese contractors, but they seem to be unable to carry out projects and we will have to reconsider their participation,” Hossaini said, without addressing who could replace them.
Several times in recent months, the Majlis has expressed concern over delays in the development of South Pars.
Tehran has repeatedly said it is able to develop South Pars on its own.
The withdrawal of the Western companies has led to a growing presence of Chinese oil firms, which since 2006 have announced a total investment in Iran of $28 billion, according to a calculation by Agence France Presse (AFP).
However, Western experts, based on assessments by the Sino-Iranian Chamber of Commerce, say actual Chinese investment in Iran is closer to $1 billion.
Last week, the Iranian media reported that the Oil Ministry had issued a warning to the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), a state company, for not carrying out a $4.7-billion contract signed in 2009 to develop Phase 11 of South Pars, after Total withdrew from the project.