According to Bijan, “One project will be handled by French Total and Malaysian Petronas to produce 10 million tons of LNG. The second project goes to British Shell while the third one will be implemented inside the country.”

“At moment, we can allow up to 49% of foreign investment and welcome foreign companies to help us launch LNG projects,” added the minister who also said Iran had signed an oil export deal with the UAE and was in negotiations with Kuwait and Armenia for gas exports.

The minister was speaking to reporters at a gas conference in Tehran.

Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister, Mehdi Mirmoezi, has also confirmed a deal with France’s Total over the South Pars oilfield. According to Mehdi, “Iran has decided to award French oil giant Total a 1.2 billion dollar contract to develop phase 11 of the massive South Pars offshore gas field.”

“Total has been chosen to develop phase 11 of South Pars [and] final negotiations are in progress. Unless there is a problem, the contract will be signed in one or two months,” added Mehdi.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s reconstruction plans were dealt another blow following suicide bomb attacks on the country’s two largest terminals in the Persian Gulf, which cost the country around 1 million barrels during the first day of stoppage alone and cost the lives of two American naval personnel and an American Coast Guardsman.

As of Sunday, one of the terminals, Khawr al-Amaya, has reopened but lost exports have been estimated to cost Iraq around US$28 million. The other terminal, Al-Basra, is due to resume operations on 26 April 2004.

According to Iraqi Oil Minister, Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulloum, “Khawr al-Amaya was damaged but was working again Sunday morning, with a loss of about 350,000 barrels of production. The attack damaged the electrical generators at the larger Al-Basra Oil Terminal, which pumps some 700,000 barrels per day of Iraq’s total exports of 1.6 million barrels a day.”

“The loss of [Al-Basra’s] production will cost Iraq almost US$20 million per day at a time when the country is desperately in need of revenues to rebuild its shattered infrastructure.”

The attacks were the first maritime attacks against Iraq’s oil facilities in the Gulf. To Ibrahim, there was only one possible suspect behind the attacks.

“The blasts bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda. Insurgents already have repeatedly attacked a northern pipeline which carries crude to Turkey. Those who are carrying out these terror actions don’t want ... prosperity for Iraq,” said the official.

The head of the country’s State Oil Marketing Organisation, Shamkhi Faraj, is less pessimistic over the impact the attacks had on the country. According to Shamkhi, “The attacks [will] not impact Iraq’s overall oil exports of 1.9 million barrels per day, which are vital to the economy as attempts are made to rebuild the country and restore stability.”

“There will be no delay in exporting our oil. We, in fact, resumed exporting oil from the southern oil terminal of Basra today,” added Shamkhi.

US Navy officials have confirmed the deaths of its sailors and the Coast Guardsman, who were killed when an explosives-laden boat detonated as the troops were boarding a vessel near the Khor Al-Amaya terminal. The two sailors were killed instantly while the Coast Guardsman died later of his injuries. Four others were wounded in the attack.

Three dhows were used in the attack, which took place 100 miles off the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. The US military has launched an investigation to determine the launching point of the attacks.