Complete Withdrawal of Chinese from the 'Yadavaran' Oil Field; Reason for Withdrawal: U.S. Sanctions

The head of the Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Exporters Union confirmed unofficial reports regarding China's exit from the development contract of the 'Yadavaran' oil field, stating: 'The Chinese are no longer active in either the Yadavaran oil field or the Azadegan field.' Seyyed Hamid Hosseini added: 'For a long time, large Chinese state-owned companies with experience abroad have not cooperated with Iran due to sanctions, and our collaboration with the Chinese is mainly limited to small companies and private sector refineries.' He emphasized that despite a 25-year contract, large state-owned Chinese companies cannot cooperate with Iran due to sanctions, stating: 'Despite Iran's membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, this organization explicitly has a clause that obliges Iran to resolve issues related to nuclear cooperation and FATF to have unproblematic banking relations.' In response to Iran Watch regarding why Iran was accepted into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization without meeting its requirements, he clarified: 'Iran has made commitments, and without resolving sanctions and FATF issues, they have currently accepted Iran's membership, but even Russian state-owned companies, despite negotiations and contracts and promises made, have not become active in Iran.' Seyyed Hamid Hosseini also commented on the opportunity loss for Iran in oil sales, stating: 'What OPEC has announced is that Iran has lost $450 billion in the past ten years. Unfortunately, due to lack of investment, extraction from oil fields has faced multiple problems, while the government's claims about selling oil through barter do not meet the primary needs of the oil industry.' The newspaper 'Shargh' noted in Esfand 1401 that after '6 years' of Chinese presence in the Yadavaran oil field, they have 'turned their back' on this energy project and have unofficially withdrawn from this shared field with Iraq. The Chinese company Sinopec was the contractor for implementing several phases of this shared field. This field consists of two fields, 'Kushk' and 'Hosseiniyeh,' which were discovered in 1999 and 2001, respectively, and after proving the continuity of these two fields, they were named 'Yadavaran.' So far, '55 wells' have been drilled in this field, and the Oil Engineering and Development Company is the employer of its development project. Accordingly, the 'opportunity loss' or non-utilization of this shared field with Iraq, located '70 kilometers' north of Abadan and '60 kilometers' southwest of Ahvaz, is estimated at about '$3.3 billion' over the 'last 2 years.'