The Ministry of Petroleum of Iran has signed a basic agreement with Russian energy group Gazprom over the development of the Farzad B, North Pars and Kish gas fields.
The Farzad B gas field was discovered in 2008 in the Farsi offshore block by a consortium led by ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas subsidiary of Indian oil and gas company ONGC. Farzad B is estimated to hold 21,700 bcf (612 bcm) of gas reserves, of which 12,500 bcf (around 350 bcm) are recoverable.
At this time, OVL was unable to develop gas resources due to Western sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. In 2015, the Indian group submitted a US$3bn field development plan to Iranian authorities to develop the project. However, Iran failed to award the development rights to the OVL consortium. State-owned Indian refiners have thus cut their imports of Iranian crude oil from around 510,000 bbl/d in 2016 to the current 370,000 bbl/d, while Iran turned to another developer for the Farzad B field.