deep
Blue Crack Addict
f*uck the axis of evil
we love money
we love money
US Halliburton wins gas contract in Iran despite sanctions
TEHRAN, Jan 10 (AFP) -
Iran said Monday that US oil giant Halliburton had won a major contract to drill for gas, despite US sanctions against foreign investment in the country's energy industry. "Halliburton and Oriental Kish (an Iranian company) are the final winners of the tender for drilling South Pars phases 9 and 10," Pars Oil and Gas Company managing director Akbar Torkan said, according to state television. An unnamed Pars company board member said the deal for the gas fields in the Gulf off the south coast of Iran was worth about 310 million dollars.
He said Halliburton had not directly signed the contract but that it had offered its services via Oriental Kish. Under a law introduced in 1996, the United States threatens sanctions on both American and foreign companies investing more than 40 million dollars in Iran's petroleum industry. Halliburton, once chaired by US Vice President Dick Cheney, has come under investigation in the United States for its dealings with Iran through a Cayman Islands subsidiary.
Washington broke diplomatic ties with Tehran after Iranian university students stormed its mission in Tehran in 1980 and took diplomats hostage for 444 days. The United States also accuses Iran of covertly trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge vehemently denied by Tehran. Iran, which is OPEC's second largest oil exporter, also has the world's second largest gas reserves. Phases 9 and 10 of South Pars, operated jointly by South Korean and Iranian companies, are expected to produce 50 million cubic meters (1.8 billion cubic feet) of natural gas, 80,000 barrels of condensates and 400 tons of sulfur a day.
In addition, the phases are expected to produce each year one million tons of ethane for petrochemical feedstock and 1.05 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas for export. Iran hopes to boost gas output from 110 billion cubic meters a year in 2000 to 292 billion cubic meters in 2010. Gas accounts for about one third of Iran's domestic energy consumption.