Iran to issue $5 billion in bonds for South Pars

TEHRAN, Nov. 14 (MNA) -- Five billion dollars in bonds will be issued in the current Iranian calendar year (to end March 20, 2012) to speed up the implementation of South Pars gas field projects, the National Iranian Oil Company’s managing director Ahmad Qalebani told . Iran will also issue $15 billion in sukuk bonds in the current year to be invested in the domestic oil industry, oil minister Rostam Qasemi said earlier this month. He added that the bonds will soon be offered on the stock market. Sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond that complies with Sharia, Islamic religious law. Sukuks must be able to link the returns and cash flows of the financing to the assets purchased, or the returns generated from an asset purchased. He also said that $10 billion will be issued in participation bonds for oil industry projects. Iran needs to invest $48 billion to spur development of its oil and natural-gas industries, said Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr in October. Development of the South Pars gas field, the world’s largest deposit of its kind, is a priority, and funds will be channeled there for as long as necessary, he said. Some $16 billion needs to be invested at the field, which Iran shares with Qatar, Khojasteh-Mehr said, without specifying a date. In 2009, Iran said that development of the remaining phases of South Pars required investment of $40 billion over 10 years.