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Tuesday, 02 December, 2008, 19:20 GMT | more >>

Costs slug Total's Pars LNG plans



By Upstream staff 

Christophe de Margerie, the head of French giant Total, said today that spiralling costs and geopolitical concerns could delay the company's planned involvement in Iran's South Pars liquefied natural gas project.

"The cost is so high that it is close to damaging the project. It has more than doubled," de Margerie told a conference in Paris.

He told reporters he could not say whether Total would take, as it had previously indicated, a decision this year on a $2 billion investment in the project.

"We have no reason to cancel (the investment). We will do what we have to do when we can do it," Reuters quoted him as saying.

Asked to comment on a report that he had been summoned by US authorities to explain Total's involvement in the project, he said: "I have received nothing."

In February Total said it was a few months away from an investment decision on whether to build Iran's first LNG export terminal. De Margerie has previously said the investment was likely to exceed $2 billion.

Total agreed to take on the Pars LNG project in February 2004, with an initial start date of 2009 that has since been pushed back to 2011 after years of wrangling over terms.

De Margerie was questioned by French investigative magistrates last month over allegations of corruption linked to the company's involvement in the first phase of the South Pars project, signed in 1997.


Thursday, 05 April, 2007, 09:01 GMT  | last updated: Thursday, 05 April, 2007, 09:35 GMT

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