Addressing a press conference on Monday, Mohammad Meshkinfam said several companies are in talks with POGC for developing SPOL but the talks with Maersk have made good progress and a contract will be signed with the company in the coming months.

"We predict that the second deal for developing SPOL will be signed with Maersk under the newly-devised model of oil contracts," he said.

The official also said that merging of Total and Maersk in the project has not been finalized yet and the latter operated independently for the time being.

"In case merging is the case, the required measures will be taken; in fact, if we agree on technical and financial matters, the merging would not be a problem for us," Meshkinfam added.

Asked when POGC will sign the SPOL development deal with Maersk, he said: "If the talks continue as they should, a contract will be signed at most by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (began March 20)."

No Technical Rows with India on Farzad B

He further said technically Iran and India have no problem for developing Farzad B gas field.

The apple of discord between the two is that the Indians demand that Iran buys the gas produced at the field which is not an option for the OPEC member country given the abundance of gas produced inside Iran to supply its domestic demand, he added. 

The POGC official further added that preliminary talks are also under way with Russia's Gazprom for developing the field. 

Total and South Pars 11

Asked about Total's presence in development project of phase 11 of the supergiant South Pars Gas Field, Meshkinfam said the French giant is active in the project and is even ahead of the schedule.

He also said that China's CNPC International has also signaled willingness to buy Total's share of the project, adding a mechanism has been placed inside the project's contract which prevents any halts in the project in case the French company abandons the project.