Italy’s Eni, Russia’s Gazprom and Germany’s Siemens have all announced that they would abandon plans for investment in Iranian projects. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, on an official visit to Israel, told reporters in Tel Aviv on 2 February that state-owned Eni has decided to opt out of its obligation to develop Phase 3 of the Darquain oil field. “Eni has a contract to respect unless it wants to pay a penalty, but it has already renounced the possibility it had to develop the third phase of an important field,” Mr Berlusconi said. In 2001 Eni signed a contract for a $550mn development of the Darquain oil field with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). The first two planned phases of development by Eni had raised Darquain production to 100,000 b/d by June 2008, and a third phase, for which Eni had been holding talks with NIOC, was expected to raise output to 260,000 b/d. Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni announced in November 2007 that the company would not sign any new contracts with Iran until Tehran’s relations with the West improved. Nevertheless, on 3 February NIOC Managing Director Seifollah Jashnsaz told IRNA that negotiations for Eni participation in Darquain Phase 3 continued: “Eni has not withdrawn from the project.”

Alexander Dyukov, Chief Executive of Gazprom’s oil subsidiary Gazpromneft, told RIA Novosti news agency on 3 February that the company has decided to abandon its plans to seek a stake in the development of Iran’s Azadegan oil field. However, in November Gazpromneft signed a memorandum of understanding with NIOC subsidiary Pedco for the development of the Azar oil field on the Anaran block, where StatoilHydro made the Azar and Changuleh oil discoveries (MEES, 9 November 2009).

Meanwhile, Siemens CEO Peter Loscher said that the company has decided “to cut off transactions with Iran”, according to a 28 January report on al-Arabiya TV. The board of the electrical engineering firm announced in October 2009 that there would not be any fresh trade agreements with Iran. Mr Loscher said that the company fully understood “the sensitivity of our trade interactions with Iran and deal with it cautiously and that is the reason we are slashing our economic relations with Iran.” The annual volume of Siemens’ business in Iran was estimated at €500mn.