French Total officially backed out of its contract with Iran, said the country's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh on late Monday. According to the Iranian news agency Tasnim, Zanganeh said that Iran has begun plans to replace the French energy company with local businesses.
The minister said that the efforts are underway to replace the French company with Iranian ones. The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and a consortium of Total, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) International, and Petropars signed the contract for developing phase 11 of the South Pars field in 2017 with Total's initial investment of $1 billion.
However in May, Total announced that it would "not be in a position to continue" the project in Iran and would "have to unwind all related operations before Nov. 4, 2018 unless Total is granted a specific project waiver by the U.S. authorities with the support of the French and European authorities.
The company said the decision was taken as a consequence of U.S. President Donald Trump's May 8 announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers known as the JCPOA, and the re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran.
