Malaysia's national oil firm Petronas said Monday it has not pulled out of a 2.0 billion dollar joint venture to develop Iran's Pars liquefied natural gas project, after last month signalling it could withdraw. "We have not pulled out of the South Pars (gas project in Iran). We are considering the project.
We are evaluating the financial criteria of the project and we continue to do so. Discussion are ongoing," Petronas president and chief executive Mohamad Hassan Marican told reporters.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Asia Oil and Gas Conference, Hassan said the LNG project was an integrated scheme and declined to say when negotiations are expected to be completed.
Last month Hassan said that Petronas "may withdraw from the Iran LNG project if the commercial terms do not meet our investment criteria."
Petronas has a 20 percent stake in the Pars LNG production company which was set up last year to build a liquefaction facility in Iran. France's Total SA has a 30 percent stake while the National Iranian Gas Export Company holds the remaining 50 percent.