Iran started talks with Belgium over a possible deployment of floating LNG technology off the Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, Iranian minister of petroleum, Bijan Zangeneh said on Tuesday.
The issue was brought up during Zangeneh’s talks with Belgian Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Pieter De Crem in Tehran on Monday as the two sides look to new areas of cooperation ahead of the lifting of sanctions on Iran, National Iranian Oil company revealed in a statement.
“If the two sides show flexibility and technical and economic negotiations bear results, (the Belgian side) will bring FLNG facilities to the Kharg region in not a distant time and Iran will begin producing LNG for the first time,” Zangeneh said.
Belgium’s Exmar is expected to bring the world’s first floating LNG facility online later this year.
Iran plans to build a capacity for exporting 40 million metric tons a year of LNG, and, according to the man in charge of the project Esmail Sadeqi, it has already signed preliminary agreements with Korean, German and Chinese shipbuilders to construct LNG tankers.
The country also plans to revive its onshore LNG projects. It had contracts with Royal Dutch Shell, Spain’s Repsol and France’s Total to build three LNG plants, but they abandoned the projects in 2010 under US and European pressures.
LNG World News Staff; Image: Exmar