Belgium May Establish FLNG Facilities in Iran’s Kharg Island
Belgium is in technical and economic talks with Iran to establish floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facilities in Iran’s southern Kharg Island, located in the Persian Gulf, an Iranian government official has said.
“If technical and economic talks between Iran and Belgium are fruitful, Belgium’s FLNG facilities will be brought to Kharg, so that Iran will produce LNG using these facilities for the first time,” Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told Shana news agency on November 9.
Zanganeh made the remarks on the sidelines of a meeting in Tehran with Belgian Secretary of State for Foreign Trade Pieter De Crem.
“Belgian companies had been active in Iran in the fields of offshore engineering and environment protection before sanctions were imposed on Iran. They are very serious to reach their bilateral trade with Iran to the pre-sanctions level of one billion dollars,” Zanganeh said.
It was also planned that the Belgian side will manufacture special oil pipelines in cooperation with Iranian partners, he added. Belgium has never imported Iranian crude oil directly, but the country is interested in investing in Iran’s petrochemical sector, Zanganeh said.
Alireza Kameli, managing director of National Iranian Gas Exports Company, said November 8 that a large European company is negotiating with the National Iranian Gas Exports Company on an FLNG project.
The two sides will soon sign a confidentiality agreement in this regard, he added.
In response to a question about whether moving toward FLNG means that Iran has been disappointed from its LNG projects, he said: “It is not true. LNG projects are being followed up as well. FLNG is another option which is being followed up.”
Negotiations on gas projects around the world take between six months and one year in the most optimistic case, he said, adding that immediately after lifting of the sanctions, executive measures on exporting gas will start.
Iran’s Deputy Petroleum Minister for Planning and Monitoring of Hydrocarbon Resources, Mansour Moazzami, said in October, with respect to Europe, that Tehran will give priority to exporting gas to neighboring countries, which will still remain high on the Iranian agenda.
“FLNGs are opportunities for the private sector,” he explained.