O:

Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft has decided to quit Iran and the possibility of US$30 billion worth of joint Russian-Iranian investments in oil and gas projects in the Islamic Republic, Russian business daily Vedomosti reports, quoting three sources close to Rosneft’s top management.

In November last year, Rosneft and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a road map for strategic cooperation in oil and gas in Iran—cooperation which Rosneft’s chief executive Igor Sechin said would involve a total of US$30 billion of investments. At the time, Russian media quoted Sechin as saying that the parties could soon sign several binding agreements, and the total production from those projects could be up to 55 million tons of oil equivalents annually, equal to 1.1 million boepd.

Now Rosneft has reconsidered its involvement in Iran, due to the U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil and due to a change in Rosneft’s strategy to focus on growing production in Russia, according to Vedomosti’s sources.

According to analysts who spoke to Vedomosti, Rosneft’s move to quit Iran is wise because risks were higher than rewards and Tehran hadn’t offered attractive terms for international investors anyway.

Rosneft is not the only Russian company said to have quit projects in Iran due to the U.S. sanctions.

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