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MEOG POLICY MEOG
Iran’s oil minister says ‘no
one wants to work with us’
IRAN THERE’S now not a country in the world that (PEDEC).
will work with Iran in its oil and gas industry The companies’ work at South Azadegan will
due to the threat posed by US sanctions, Ira- include the building of a 320,000 b/d central
nian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said treatment export plant (CTEP).
during the signing of documents for a new oil Iran plans to raise the daily oil production
field development project, official energy news capacity of the field to 320,000 b/d within 30
agency SHANA has reported. months.
Foreign energy companies—most notably The South Azadegan project involves drilling
French major Total—have pulled out of the 35 wells, installing 50 downhole ESP pumps,
country since the reimposition of US sanctions completing eight manifolds, completing two
in 2018. intermediate separation plants and constructing
That has forced industry development work 328 km of flow pipelines, 45 km of communi-
back into the hands of Iranian companies. cation pipelines and 65 km of gas and crude oil
“No country is ready to sign agreements with transmission pipelines running from the CTEP
us,” Zanganeh was quoted as saying to the West Karoun Pumping House and NGL
He added that in oil and gas “Iran is ready to 3200.
cooperate with any country except Israel.” The parties to the contract said the CTEP
Zanganeh made the remarks on the sidelines would process 320,000 b/d and would thus be
of a contract signing for the $961mn comple- the largest such processing unit in Iran.
tion of the development of South Azadegan Azadegan is one of Iran’s best producing oil
field by Iranian companies Petropars and Petro- fields. Its estimated capacity is more than 53bn
leum Engineering and Development Company barrels of crude.
Greek military warns
Turkey over seismic vessel
TURKEY GREEK daily Kathimerini has reported military been engaging in telephone diplomacy with Mit-
sources in Greece as saying that if cables of the sotakis and Erdogan in an attempt at heading
Turkish Oruc Reis seismic research vessel come of the danger of Greece and Turkey’s relations
into contact with the Greek continental shelf, plummeting to a point where military conflict
Turkey will have the “complete and exclusive” might seem a real possibility.
responsibility for what will follow. However, French President Emmanuel
The report followed a Turkish Navtex naval Macron has taken an aggressive line towards
advisory announcement issued last week that Turkey, reiterating his full solidarity with Greece
Athens claimed reserved areas within the Greek and Cyprus over the hydrocarbon resources con-
continental shelf area for seismic surveys by the troversy and calling on the EU to impose sanc-
Oruc Reis as part of Turkey’s search for gas and tions on Ankara for territorial infringements.
oil. The same sources were quoted by the news-
paper as saying that Greece’s armed forces have
entered a state of increased readiness in response
to Ankara’s decision to dispatch two-thirds of the
Turkish naval fleet to the Aegean Sea.
Only a few weeks ago, Greek Prime Minis-
ter Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to keep channels
of communication open on matters of dispute.
Spokesman for the Turkish presidency, Ibra-
him Kalin, said “Greece’s reaction was excessive”
in response to the Navtex.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has lately
Week 30 29•July•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9
