Iran and South Africa signed an agreement for production of gas to liquids (GTL) and crude oil blending on Sunday in a push to transfer clean fuel technology to a ban-free Islamic Republic of Iran.
From Iran, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) and from South Africa, state-run PetroSA signed the deal.
The agreement was signed during the state visit to Tehran by South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his South African counterpart were present in the ceremony held to sign the deal in Tehran.
South Africa’s Sasol was previously pursuing a major project to produce GTL at industrial level in Iran’s South Pars energy zone, reported PressTV.
However, it had to quit the projects in 2005 as complications grow as a result of US pressures on foreign investors in Iran as well as certain technical hurdles.
Sasol originally planned to produce 600,000 barrels per day of GTL from South Pars Phase 14 over a period of 10 years.
As indications grew last summer that sanctions that barred foreign investments in Iran could be soon lifted, the company once again voiced interest in taking up the same liquidation project it had abandoned in Iran.
Zuma arrived in Tehran on Sunday heading a 180-member politico-economic delegation. He is visiting the Islamic Republic at the invitation of President Rouhani to discuss ways to strengthen relations between the two countries.
A series of key agreements were signed during Zuma’s visit to Tehran in a variety of areas including the agriculture industry, water management, as well as joint investments and the insurance industry.