Two years after it agreed to reduce its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, Iran has signed its first energy deal. France’s Total SA and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) agreed to a $5 billion deal to develop Phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars offshore gas field, one of the largest in the world.
Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh hailed the deal, attributing it to both the nuclear deal and the presidential election that gave President Hassan Rouhani a second term. Zanganeh also said July 3 that Iran would not be opposed to signing energy deals with the United States; however, it is the Americans themselves who do not want to.