TEHRAN - Fifteen large private companies, affiliated with the Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF), or the Movement of the Enterprises of France, have announced their readiness to make investment in Iran’s gas projects, the Shana News Agency reported on Saturday.

Directors of the companies, including Total, Technip, Schneider, and Vinci Energy, negotiated with National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Managing Director Hamid Reza Araqi on the sidelines of the 26th edition of the World Gas Conference (WGC PARIS 2015), which was held from June 1 to 5 in Paris.

In an exhibition held on the sidelines of the conference, the NIGC introduced 18 large projects of Iran’s gas industry to foreign investors, Araqi stated.

MEDEF is the main private-funded union of employers in France. It was established in 1998. It is a non-profit private-funded organization, with 20,000 employees throughout the world. It gathers more than 4,000 French companies already operating in the world.

Iran, which sits on the world’s largest gas reserves, intends to enhance gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investment, especially in its South Pars gas field. 

South Pars gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters. 

The field is estimated to contain a significant amount of natural gas, accounting for about eight percent of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.

MA