Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

National Iranian Gas Company has dismissed as baseless reports on negotiations with United Arab Emirates’ Crescent Petroleum to revive a major gas export deal that ran into troubled waters in 2005.

"As the issue does not concern the NIGC, it has held no negotiation on exporting gas to the UAE nor revising the contract with Crescent Petroleum and the issue only concerns the Ministry of Petroleum," the Tasnim News Agency quoted NIGC Spokesman Majid Bojarzadeh as saying on February 23.

Bojarzadeh’s remarks came after a media report quoted an NIGC official as saying that discussions are currently underway with Crescent Petroleum to change the terms of the contract.

He reiterated that any NIGC official has made neither negotiation nor interview in this regard.

Earlier, Fars news agency reported an unnamed NIGC official that Iran has started planning for the exports of natural gas to the UAE.

The reports said the key topics in the fresh negotiations with Crescent Petroleum are the same as those in the troubled deal.

It also added that no new deal will be signed and that officials in Iran’s oil industry are working on how to implement the deal.

The National Iranian Oil Company and Crescent signed a 25-year deal in 2001 for the export of 17 million cubic meter of gas per day from Iran’s Salman field in the Persian Gulf to the UAE. However, the deal was suspended and became a subject of controversy in Iran in 2005.

Crescent Petroleum eventually sought an international arbitration through The Hague over its dispute with NIOC in 2009 and it said in 2014 that it had won the case. The company said an international tribunal had determined that “the 25-year contract between it and NIOC is valid and binding upon the parties, and that NIOC has been obligated to deliver gas under the contract since December 2005.”

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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