According to an Iranian official, the contract to develop Iran’s northern Pars gas field to be signed with the China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has been postponed to the “near future”. The signing has been delayed earlier as well, since the deal was first announced in 2006. Explaining the latest delay, the spokesperson for the Pars Oil and Gas Company said that the signing was postponed due to the inability of Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari to attend the same. The $16 billion deal is the second major gas deal between China and Iran. Late last year China‘s Sinopec group signed a deal to develop Iran’s Yadavaran oil field1.

• 1. Hashem Kalantari and James Jukwey “Iran and China Gas deal signing delayed,” Reuters, February 27, 2008, at www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSBLA73270420080227