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China, Iran close to finalize energy contracts
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-02-17 18:55
China will soon send its top economic planner to Iran in hopes of finalizing
energy contracts worth more than 100 billion dollars.
Iran's oil refinery in the Gulf port of
Bandar-Abbas. China will soon send its top economic planner to Iran in
hopes of finalizing energy contracts worth more than 100 billion
dollars.[AFP] |
National Developmental Reform Commission chief Ma Kai will lead a delegation
to Tehran as early as March to sign agreements for massive exports from the
Yadavaran oil fields, finance magazine Caijing said on its website.
His trip will be a follow-up to a memorandum of understanding signed in
October 2004 between Iran and Sinopec, China's largest refiner, to buy 250
million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) over 25 years. That arrangement
could be worth more than 100 billion dollars.
Friday's Asian Wall Street Journal, citing Iranian oil ministry officials
familiar with the China talks, said Iran was trying to conclude any deals before
potential sanctions are imposed over its nuclear ambitions.
Iran has restarted small-scale enrichment of uranium despite international
efforts to stop it. The UN Security Council is expected to debate the issue in
March.
The gas deal with China also calls for Sinopec to develop the Yadavaran oil
fields, where it could tap into billions of dollars of the estimated three
billion barrels of recoverable reserves there, Caijing said.
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