Iran plans to invest around $70 billion in two major offshore natural gas fields in the 2010-2015 period, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) managing director said in Tehran on Thursday.

Seifollah Jashnsaz added Iran would invest more than $40 billion to complete remaining projects in the South Pars field during the fifth five-year economic plan, which runs until 2015.
He did not say how Iran, which is also the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, would finance the investments.
South Pars, the world’s largest reservoir of gas, is shared by Iran and Qatar. The Iranian part is divided into 24 phases.
Over $25 billion would also be invested in the North Pars field, Jashnsaz said.
“Altogether it looks like ... Iran will invest some $70 billion in these two fields which is a very high figure and no other field in the country is expected to have such high investment,” Jashnsaz told state television.
He did not explain the difference between the $70 billion figure and the total of $65 billion which he said would be invested in the two fields.
Another Iranian official, Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, who is the deputy NIOC managing director for investment affairs, told Reuters on Monday Iran is in talks with Asian banks on a €1 billion ($1.40 billion) bond to finance the development of South Pars, as part of its pursuit of billions of energy sector funding.
In May, an Iranian state company said Iran planned to issue $12.3 billion of foreign currency and rial-denominated bonds over the next three years to help finance South Pars.
In all, Iran’s five-year energy sector investment plan required investment totaling around $30 billion per year, Ghanimifard had told Reuters in an interview.
Iran has the world’s second largest gas reserves, almost 16% of the world’s total, but currently has no major net exports partly because U.S. and UN sanctions have deterred investment by Western companies with expertise and technology.
(Source: upstreamonline.com)