China‘s CNPC Still Involved in North Azadegan: Iran Oil Minister

China National Petroleum Corp remains involved in the development of the North Azadegan oilfield in Iran although its performance is unsatisfactory, the country's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said Tuesday.

"We still have cooperation with the Chinese in some projects. We haven't stopped working with them. In those parts that they were inadequate, we told them not to work there," Zanganeh said on the sidelines of an industry event in Tehran on Tuesday. "For now, they are in North Azadegan."

The minister's comments come days after Iranian officials said CNPC has been kicked out of the South Azadegan project because of lack of progress at the field.Oil ministry news service Shana reported last week that Tehran had formally told CNPC it was being removed from the project while Rokneddin Javadi, managing director of National Iranian Oil Co., said CNPC failed to move the project forward after repeated warnings.

The company had been given a three-month deadline in January to speed up work on South Azadegan or risk losing the contract.

CNPC was awarded the contract to develop North Azadegan and South Azadegan in 2009, the same year it was also awarded Phase II development of the South Pars gas field. 

(platts.com  Edited by Topco)