“The fact that Total did not wait for conclusion of the US admin Iran Review Policy to sign the major gas deal carries an important message,” Baeidinejad said in his twitter message released on Monday evening.
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Total, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Petropars on Monday, July 3, signed a $4.8bn contract for development of the Phase 11 of Iran's South Pars gas field, according to IRNA.
The contract was signed by the NIOC Chief Ali Kardor; Petropars chief, Hamid Akbari; Total’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Patrick Pouyanne and CNPC’s CEO in the presence of Iran’s Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh.
The signing ceremony was also attended by the French and Chinese ambassadors in Tehran as well as members of parliament’s (Majlis) Committee on Energy and senior officials from Ministry of Petroleum.
The multi-billion-dollar gas deal was signed while the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had earlier announced that Washington was reviewing its policy towards Iran.