Iran has cancelled a gas contract with UAE-based Crescent Petroleum with which it has had a long-standing dispute over the supply of Iranian gas, the head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said on Saturday. NIOC and Sharjah-headquartered Crescent signed a 25-year gas contract in 2001, with a price linked to oil. But as oil rallied some Iranian officials called for a revision to the price formula and blamed the price dispute for delivery delays.
Javad Oji, head of NIOC and Iran's deputy oil minister said the contract had been nullified and that from now on: "The oil ministry's policy is the direct sale of gas to the UAE government", the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. "For the sale of gas to neighbouring countries, a unified price formula has been set and all negotiations will be conducted on the basis of this formula obtained on the basis of oil and oil derivative prices," he said.