OREANDA-NEWS. Iran has initiated discussions with international companies for the sale of some shares in an LNG export project, which it hopes will be revived once sanctions on the country are lifted, a senior Iranian gas market official said.

The 10.8mn t/yr Iran LNG joint-venture project — one of three LNG export projects Iran was planning to launch before sanctions were stepped up around 10 years ago — is a "frontrunner" among the country's ongoing export projects, National Iranian Gas Export (NIGEC) general manager of market research and economic appraisal Mostafa Sharif told Argus. It remains competitive despite the recent slump in global LNG prices, he said.

NIGEC is the export subsidiary of Iran's state-owned gas producer NIGC.

Iran is determined to revive and complete the project in just under three years, although a more specific timeline, and the engineering details, will depend on the final structure of shareholders.

NIGEC owns 49pc of the LNG joint venture and Iran Oil Pension Fund holds the remaining 51pc. NIGEC is considering the sale of shares in the project to international companies that will help complete the project. NIGEC could reduce its shares to 20-25pc from 49pc, Sharif said. Iran Oil Pension Fund may also seek to sell some of it 51pc stake. Discussions with international oil companies could be concluded this year.

German industrial gases group Linde is expected to deliver liquefaction technology for the LNG project once sanctions are lifted. The liquefaction licenses and some of the facilities have already been purchased.

Iran is keen to secure new export markets for its gas given that it is hoping to raise production to 1bn m?/d by 2018-2019. Current output from the South Pars gas field has reached 420mn m?/d, Iran says.

As well as meeting its own rising domestic gas consumption, Iran is in discussions to begin supplying Iraq and Oman with gas, and sell additional volumes of gas to Turkey.

Iran was in discussions with private-sector Turkish gas companies earlier in 2015 for a gas-to-power conversion scheme, whereby Iranian gas would be converted to power at a plant located in Turkey in order to sell electricity to the Turkish market. The further weakening of the Turkish lira against the US dollar in the past few months and the steep fall in Turkish spot electricity prices now make this less viable. Additional infrastructure improvements to receive extra gas from Iran, which is Turkey's second-largest gas provider, would also need to be implemented.

Turkey has an arbitration case against Iran over gas pricing at the Switzerland-based International Council for Commercial Arbitration, with a decision expected soon.

In terms of Iran's other regional projects, while the country has completed its side of a pipeline to Iraq, security issues in Iraq have prevented the project from coming on line. Iran also has plans to export to Oman and Pakistan.

NIGEC recently said it has been in discussions to export gas to Georgia through Armenia, but the talks stalled during price negotiations.

International sanctions on Iran are expected to be lifted imminently, after UN nuclear watchdog the IAEA issues its final report on Iran on 15 January.