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the reports about CNPC by warning that the company would be held to account if it breached the contract framing the project. Demonstrating how concerned he was by the CNPC move, Zanganeh even joined Twitter to tweet his standpoint—Twitter is banned in Iran.
Zanganeh was reacting to a Reuters report that three state oil executives had said CNPC had frozen its investment in Phase 11 of the field, shared with Qatar. The Chinese corporation in late November replaced France’s Total as the operator of the project.
Total ended its participation in Phase 11 rather than expose itself to US secondary sanctions. When it scrapped the investment it was also in the early stages of planning petrochemical investments in Iran that would use feedstock made with gas from South Pars.
Russia's largest oil company state-controlled Rosneft will drop plans to work in Iran, despite previous investing $30bn and extracting 55mn tonnes of oil with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Vedomosti daily reported on December 12 citing unnamed sources close to the company. Russian oil and gas companies could invest $50bn in development of hydrocarbon fields in Iran , the presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told the press in April 2018. Previous reports claimed that in 2016 Rosneft, Lukoil, Gazprom Neft, and Tatneft oil majors, as well as Gazprom gas giant signed memorandum of understanding with the NIOC.
But reportedly Rosneft started winding down the possible cooperation with NIOC in summer 2018 when the threat of the US sanctions against Iran first appeared. The sanctions were then introduced in November 6.
Previous reports indirectly confirm that Rosneft was putting the Iranian ties on hold, as Rosneft-controlled Indian refiner Nayara Energy, one of India’s biggest buyers of Iranian oil , began cutting its imports in July.
Other sources now told Vedomosti that Rosneft will focus more on growth inside Russia, rather than overseas expansion, which is in line with the investor makeover that the company launched earlier this year . Dmitry Marinchenko of Fitch Ratings also reminded that Russia is building closer ties with Saudi Arabia, which is the geopolitical foe of Iran.
"There were no obligations to the Iranian side, no money were invested, so there is no clarity on what will happen," another source told the daily.
9.2.2 Automotive corporate news
Iran’s largest car producer, Iran Khodro (IKCO), has announced it will start offering its Dena sedan in Ukraine as part of a joint-venture deal with an Azerbaijani company, Mehr News Agency reported on February 13. The Khazar-branded vehicle built by AzerMash is assembled in the Naftchala area, 168-km south of Baku under licensing agreed by IKCO. The car has had a lukewarm reception in Azerbaijan but is popular with taxi drivers due to its affordable parts, according to reports. The enterprise produces the IKCO Dena+ model, released in 2016 and based on the Peugeot 405 platform from the 1980s.
Head of IKCO operations in Asia, Europe, America and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Sabina Nobari, said the company was set to export its Dena vehicles to Ukraine through its operations in Azerbaijan.
She said it would send vehicles to Ukraine under the Khazar brand. The vehicles would be sold as completely built units (CBU) and would be shipped via the Black Sea from Georgia, she added.
IKCO was present on the Ukrainian market between 2006 and 2010, selling
47 IRAN Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com