Petroleum industry in Iran

The United States snapped sanctions back in place on Monday to choke off Iran's oil and shipping industry, while temporarily allowing top customers such as China and India to keep buying crude from the Islamic Republic.

China's state-owned energy major CNPC has taken over the share in Iran's multi-billion dollar South Pars gas project held by France's Total, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on Aug. 11.

Iran's oil exports could fall by as much as two-thirds by the end of the year because of new U.S. sanctions, putting oil markets under huge strain amid supply outages elsewhere in the world.

Chinese state-owned oil company CNPC will replace Total on a major gas field project in Iran if the French energy giant pulls out over renewed U.S. sanctions against Tehran, Iran's oil minister has said.

European oil companies are not ruling out reducing Iranian oil imports after the threat of new US sanctions, with some expecting banking issues to hinder trade, but there was no rush to immediately cut volumes.

Iran has fully settled its debt to Turkey over gas exports, a senior Iranian energy official said on Feb. 5, adding that Ankara should now buy Iranian gas without a discount.

France’s Total will lose all of its investment if it pulls out of a deal with Iran to develop South Pars, the world’s largest gas field, the Iranian oil minister said on Nov. 21.

The growth of shale gas extraction is positioning the United States to be a bigger natural gas exporter, potentially challenging Russia's hold on the European market.

Russia's Gazprom Neft and Austria's OMV will work together in Iran's oil sector under a memorandum of understanding, OMV said on June 2.

"Preliminary possible spheres of cooperation include analysis, assessment and study of certain oil deposits located in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran in cooperation with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)," OMV said.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated five new phases of the South Pars gas field on april 16, the result of some $20 billion in investment, local media reported.

The ribbon-cutting of phases 17-21 pave the way for Iran to surpass the production levels of neighboring Qatar, which shares half the offshore gas field, Iranian officials said.