Oil Majors Say U.S. Restrictions Delay Iran Projects

[maddezmom]

Delay Iran Projects
By BENOÎT FAUCON and ROSHANAK TAGHAVI
May 30, 2008; Page B5

LONDON -- Global oil and natural-gas companies seeking to slake the world's energy thirst by investing in Iran are increasingly finding that difficulties accessing U.S. technology because of sanctions are forcing them to delay planned investments in the country.

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"Due to American sanctions, we can't apply American technology or equipment," Shell Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer said at a May 20 shareholders meeting. "We will need longer for the preparation of the project."

U.S. sanctions against Iran have existed for nearly three decades because of the country's alleged support of terrorism but were hardened with the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996.

For years, some U.S. companies continued operating in Iran using a legal loophole that authorized foreign subsidiaries to maintain such business. But after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and tensions over the country's nuclear program, Washington has started to scrutinize U.S. companies' Iranian businesses more closely, while some pension funds also have campaigned for an end to U.S. business in Iran. As a result, units of some U.S. companies are pulling out.

The U.S. plays a major role in sectors such as oil-field services as well as oil drilling and gas turbines. Halliburton Co., which disclosed about $50 million of Iran revenue for 2003, ended all works in the Islamic Republic in April last year. The U.S. engineering giant had come under pressure from a New York firemen pension fund and received a U.S. grand-jury subpoena for its Iran business in 2004.

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