Iran Threatens To Replace Sofregaz On Varamin Project

France’s Sofregaz has been informed by Masoud Samivand, the Managing Director of Iran’s state-owned Iranian Gas Storage Company (IGSC), a National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) subsidiary, that if it does not start work on the Varamin gas storage facility the contract will be canceled, according to the Ministry of Petroleum’s Shana news service. Mr Samivand explained that Sofregaz, a Total subsidiary, abandoned the Yort-e-Shah project 18 months ago after it failed to receive bank and foreign investment insurance guarantees, only to restate its interest to return last June (MEES, 15 June). Following negotiations between the two sides in early October IGSC “agreed to reduce the contract value to $44mn from the previous figure of $84mn.”

Based on the agreement the French company has to “get its board of directors’ nod for the plan in one week or we will hold a tender to replace them” said Mr Samivand. If Sofregaz does not meet its obligations by 31 October then IGSC will start negotiations with at least three international companies that have recently expressed an interest in the project. These companies include Germany’s KBB, Russia’s Stroytransgaz and Poland’s POGC. The Yort-e-Shah gas storage facility had been expected to start operations in 2011. The natural gas storage facility in the city of Varamin, 70km southwest of Tehran, will have a gas storage capacity of 540mn cu ms, and would be expected to be completed by late 2011. Sofregaz was awarded a contract in 2002 for the conversion of the Yort-e-Shah aquifer into an underground gas storage facility to serve the Tehran area (MEES, 22 April 2002).

Mirkazemi Changes Heads Of State Gas and Petrochemical Companies

Iranian Oil Minister, Masoud Mirkazemi, announced on 28 October that he was appointing Javad Owji, Managing Director of South Zagros Oil and Gas Company, as head of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), replacing Azizollah Ramezani. Mr Mirkazemi also appointed Gholamhossein Bayat as the new Managing Director of the National Iranian Petrochemical Company, replacing Adel Nejadsali. These mark the second round of appointment decisions taken by Mr Mirkazemi since he became oil minister (MEES, 24 August). Two weeks ago he replaced Javad Yarjani, who was in change of the Oil Ministry’s OPEC directorate, appointing OPEC Governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi as caretaker of the post.

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