UPDATE 1-Total CEO says costs endangering Iran project http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSL056671020070405
Thu Apr 5, 2007
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By Marie Maitre
PARIS, April 5 (Reuters) - Spiralling costs and geopolitical concerns could delay Total's (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) planned involvement in Iran's South Pars liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie said on Thursday.
"The cost is so high that it is close to damaging the project. It has more than doubled," de Margerie told a conference in Paris.
He told reporters he could not say whether Total would take a decision this year on investing in the project, as it had previously indicated, but said the French firm was still committed. His comments come amid reports the U.S. was pressuring Total to pull out.
"We have no reason to cancel (the investment). We will do what we have to do when we can do it," de Margerie said.
The U.S. has urged its allies not to invest in Iran as part of a campaign to force Tehran to stop it nuclear programme. Iran says its nuclear ambitions are for generating electricity.
Asked to comment on a report that he had been summoned by U.S. authorities to explain Total's involvement in the project, he said: "I have received nothing."
Total said in February that it was a few months away from an investment decision on whether to build Iran's first LNG export terminal. De Margerie has previously said the investment was likely to exceed $2 billion. Total agreed to take on the Pars LNG project in February 2004, with an initial start date of 2009 that has since been pushed back to 2011 after years of wrangling over terms.
De Margerie was questioned by French investigative magistrates last month over allegations of corruption linked to the company's involvement in the first phase of the South Pars project, signed in 1997.
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