TEHRAN – A lawmaker said that the Majlis Energy Committee members are reviewing the contract that was signed earlier between the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and Crescent National Gas Corporation Limited (CNGCL).

Kamal Daneshyar, who chairs the committee, said they are studying all terms of the controversial contract in Cooperation with the parliament’s research center.

“The NIOC should either cancel the agreement or reform the pricing,” he stated.

The updated contract should include that the minimum price for each cubic meter of gas to be sold is 25 cents. The contract contains export of 500 million cubic feet of Iran’s natural gas to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Based on the agreement, the UAE would gain $8 billion in profit and $4 billion would be given to the brokerage company Crescent. The contract would be valid for 25 years and was slated to start last year.

A senior official of Dana Gas, a Sharjah-based company that along with Crescent Petroleum has majority shareholding in the CNGCL, has said last week that NIOC has reached a Gas Sales Agreement (GSA) with CNGCL to deliver natural gas by year-end.

He had told reporters at the Middle East Oil and Gas Conference (MEO&G) that Dana Gas was not the direct party in the agreement.

He said that CNGCL has the capacity of 1 billion standard cubic feet of gas and according to the agreement the company will receive 600 million standard cubic feet per day from Iran's Salman gas fields. He denied there had been any delay in the pipeline project.

The Iran-UAE pipeline will provide natural gas to Hamriya Free Zone in Sharjah and according to a report work on $1 billion worth project is in advance stages.

CNGCL, according to Dana Gas' website, has access to UAE gas reserves, as well as the 25-year deal for the supply of natural gas from the NIOC.