Very few foreign firms apart from Chinese companies remain in Iran’s fossil fuel operations.
Like many firms, SKS had tried to keep something going in Iran without plunking down any capital, hoping the nuclear issue would be solved and normal business could be resumed. As with other firms that have done that, the National Iranian Oil Co. finally pulled the plug and has now booted SKS out of its contract.
SKS signed the contract four years ago to develop the Golshan and Ferdowsi gasfields. The December 2007 contract was said to be worth $16 billion. Little if anything has been done on those projects.
Musa Suri, managing director of the state-owned Pars Oil and Gas Co., said last week that a tender will soon be issued to transfer the jobs to domestic firms with work slated to start by March 2013.
Suri did not say where the required capital would come from.
