Iran LNG, the country's third major liquefied natural gas project, is in the final stages of awarding the main engineering, procurement and construction contract for a US$5bn project and will make a choice between finalists Shell, Total, and Repsol.
An Iran LNG official told Upstream newspaper that more than one company will come on board as a partner and each will have some off-take from the project, though not in the same proportion as its equity stake. A total of 40% equity in Iran LNG is being offered to foreign companies.
Iran LNG is planning a two-train 10.5mn tons-per-annum (TPA) liquefaction facility that will produce 380,000 TPA of liquid petroleum gas and 160,000 TPA of condensate.
Ali Kheirandish, Iran LNG managing director, told Iran's Press TV that the project will enable Iran to export 80mn tons of LNG annually, almost twice as much as the country's oil export. Iran LNG is planning to make its first shipment at the end of December 2010, though experts believe that this ambitious schedule will not be met, given that the project that has yet to sign a firm sales contract and needs to find "an estimated US$4bn to US$5bn" in capital expenditure.
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