Sonangol

"Angolan state oil company Sonangol has pulled out of a $7.5 billion natural gas project in Iran and informed the Iranian government it can no longer operate there because of sanctions, a senior company official said on Friday. 'We are out of Iran,' Mateus Morais de Brito, a member of the company's executive board, said at a news conference in Luanda. 'Nowadays it has become unsustainable for us to develop technical and operational activities in Iran due to this matter of the sanctions,' Mateus Morais de Brito, a member of the company's executive board, said at a news conference in Luanda." (Reuters, "Angola's Sonangol pulls out of Iran gas project," 2/25/2012)

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"Two Angolan oil officials said Sonangol is considering exiting a preliminary agreement to take a 20% stake, potentially valued at about $1.5 billion, in a project in Iran's South Pars natural-gas field... One of the officials said discussions about pulling out were tied to concerns that following through with the deal could expose Sonangol to U.S. sanctions. Sonangol, whose full name is Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola Ltd., also has worried the investment would antagonize Iran's critics in the U.S., where the Angolan energy concern maintains an oil-trading business... Spokesmen for Sonangol and the Angolan oil ministry declined to comment." (The Wall Street Journal, "U.S. Looks to Africa to Squeeze Iran," 1/23/2012)

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"India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp and the Hinduja group will jointly get a 40-percent stake in Iran's South Pars-12 project, Managing Director of Iran's national oil company Seifollah Jashnsaz said. Angola's national oil company, Sonangol, will hold 20 percent in the project that will be developed at a cost of $7.5 billion, Jashnsaz told reporters on Tuesday." (Reuters, "India, Angola cos to get stake in Iran project," 12/1/09)