Sushma asks Iran to give Farzad-B gas field development to India

Also expresses India's desire to participate in other oil and gas exploration projects in Iran

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said Iran should complete the procedures for India's participation in the Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf. She was speaking at the 18th session of the India-Iran Joint Commission in New Delhi on Monday.

ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) had helped discover gas in the Farsi gas field in 2008, but it did not bid for it because of the West's economic sanctions on Iran. In September 2014, Iran had put Farzad-B gas field on a list of fields it planned to auction citing delays by OVL in its development. In April 2015, a team of petroleum ministry officials visited Iran to persuade it to give the contract for development of the field to OVL. The field is estimated to have 12.8 trillion cubic feet of reserves.

Swaraj also pointed to India's desire to participate in other oil and gas explorations in Iran, a statement by the external affairs ministry said.

The Joint Commission session was co-chaired by Swaraj and Ali Taiebnia, Iran's minister of economic affairs and finance.

The Iranian minister also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Swaraj underlined the efforts underway to enhance bilateral cooperation in energy, infrastructure - including shipping, ports and railways - and trade. She stressed the connectivity afforded by Indian participation in Chahbahar port would facilitate linking Afghanistan and Central Asia with India.

New Delhi is assisting Iran to modernise the Chahbahar port.

The Iranian side suggested participation of India's public and private sectors in development of the Chahbahar port and the Chahbahar free trade zone (FTZ) and in setting up industrial units in the FTZ. The two ministers reviewed the progress in trade and economic cooperation and a number of related matters, and discussed the possibilities of cooperation in railways (supply of rails, rolling stock, signalling and other works, etc) and India's participation in the Chahbahar-Zahedan-Mashhad railway line, the external affairs ministry said.

'India to import more oil from Iran'

Quoting Marziye Riahi, head of Iran's energy working group delegation to New Delhi, Iran's state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency (Irna) said on Monday India would import oil from Iran in the same quantity as in the pre-sanctions era.

Before the sanctions, Iran met 16 per cent of India's oil needs, which dropped to six per cent during sanction years. Irna also reported that Teheran did not intend to keep its oil sale incomes in India. Hossein Yaghoubi-miab, the representative of the Central Bank of Iran, said Iran was waiting for the sanctions to be lifted in the next few days.

"The major portion of India's debts to Iran will be transferred from the country in euro (and not rupees)," said Yaghoubi-miab, Director General of the International Affairs Department of the Central Bank of Iran. He said Iran had conveyed this to India during meetings held sometime ago in Teheran.