TEHRAN (AFX) - Japanese firm Inpex will only have a 10 pct stake in the development of Iran's Azadegan oil field, and the main contract will go to Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO), Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hameneh was cited as saying on Sunday by the Mehr news agency.
The share of Inpex 'has been cut from 75 pct to 10 pct in the project to develop the Azadegan oil field,' Mehr quoted him as saying.
'The Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO) will be put in charge of the operations,' he added.
On Saturday, the oil minister had described reports that the stake had been slashed to 10 pct as 'not precise' and insisted that talks between the two sides were continuing.
On Sunday, Vaziri-Hameneh said: 'The fate of Inpex in the contract is clear. It is not possible to imagine a return' to the original scenario.
'The reason they have been allotted 10 pct is because this firm took action to develop (Azadegan) and for this reason we agreed to give them 10 pct,' he said, according to Iran's official IRNA news agency.
The deal, signed in Feb 2004, targeted production of 260,000 barrels per day from Azadegan, which has an estimated 26 bln barrels in place. Work had been due to start on the oil field by March 2005. newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/jsa COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2006. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited