IRAN has told Total and Shell that it will not extend the deadlines for completion of their South Pars development contracts beyond the present June, 2008, deadline.
In other words, they risk losing the contracts.
Petroleum minister Gholamhossein Nozari is reported to have said that the two companies have blamed increasing costs for the delay in concluding their contracts for the giant South Pars liquefied natural gas project.
Nozari said other companies were waiting in the wings to snatch the contracts away.
He indicated, too, that Petrobras had better get moving in the Caspian Sea, where the Brazilian company holds a contract to explore the Iranian sector.