Norwegian firm close to JV in Iranian petrochemicals sector

Iranian petrochemicals: In what would be one of the first major gas deals to be signed since sanctions were lifted late last year, the Norwegian oil and gas company, Hemla Vantage is reported to be on the verge of entering into a JV with  Iran’s Kharg Petrochemical Company (KPC) and of securing a  $600m contract to produce and export LNG.
The new company would purchase 200 million standard cubic feet of flared gas per day from offshore fields near Kharg Island for a period of up to 15 years.  The gas would be transported for export in a Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) barge that has already been ordered from China and which will be ready to be shipped to Kharg Island by  October. The barge will be leased by the JV from Exmar, the Belgian shipping company and energy supply chain provider Exmar.
KPC was established in the 1960s in a joint venture between National Petrochemical Company and Amoco, the American oil group, to recover propane, butane, naphtha and sulphur from offshore fields. It is now largely owned by quasi-state-owned pension organisations.
The project indicates the  renewed interest being shown by President Hassan Rouhani’s centrist government in LNG,  after the previous regime’s policy of  favouring pipelines instead. “Pipeline gas is so political but you can sell LNG everywhere even if sanctions come back,” Hemla Director Gerhard Ludvigsen told the FT. “With LNG, Iran will not be landlocked.”