According to the economic daily, the CEO of the oil giant made the remarks during a dinner held last month in Davos, Switzerland, bringing together the u.s. head of State and several other business leaders in europe. “When I had the chance to dine with the president of the United States, I asked the question (on Iran),” said Patrick Pouyanné, quoted by the FT.
The CEO of the French group stressed that, according to him, the main issue was to allow sufficient time for the reformers to lead their efforts towards “more democracy” in the country. “I think that Donald Trump has listened; this does not mean that it is okay,” added the officer, according to remarks reported by the FT. Donald Trump has agreed, for the “last time” in January to extend the suspension of economic sanctions against Iran lifted by virtue of the agreement of 2015, which supervises the nuclear activities of the islamic Republic.
But the american president has set an ultimate time limit of 120 days, to allow the United States and their european partners to correct, he said, the “terrible flaws” of which suffers, in his view, the agreement signed at Vienna on 14 July 2015.
“Fully committed”
Total committed investments in Iran where it was signed last July an agreement to develop phase 11 of South Pars, the largest natural gas deposit in the world. The French group remains “fully engaged” in this project is evaluated in its first stage about two billion dollars, ” said Patrick Pouyanné, but Total would have “several ways to ” opt-out” if sanctions were again imposed.
Under the terms of the agreement, Total is the operator of the project and its shareholder with a 50.1%, to the sides of Petropars, a subsidiary of the company, national iranian NIOC (19.9%) and of the national company of chinese CNPC (30%). “If the framework, the rules of the game change, of course we will have to re-evaluate,” continued the CEO of Total, which also has a number of assets in the United States.
One of the options might be for Total to sell its shares to CNPC, he said on the subject of South Pars, citing also the possible scenario of a stop of the project. Industrial sources have told Reuters in December that the oil and gas chinese CNPC was planning to take up the shares in Total if the French oil tanker retired.
(with Reuters)
