South Pars bonds go on sale today

TEHRAN,Feb.4(MNA)--Iran will begin issuing public bonds today to finance the development of the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf. The 4-year bonds, which will be available for purchase from Tejarat and Mellat branches for 6 working days, will offer a 20 percent yield per annum. The total value of the paper was previously increased by 27 per cent, from nine trillion rials (around $735 million) to 11.5 trillion rials (some $940 million), in anticipation of high public demand. On November 26, 2011, $500 million in bonds was offered with a 17 percent yield, but there was little uptake. In a separate transaction, five billion dollars in bonds will be issued in the current Iranian calendar year (to end March 20, 2012) to speed up the implementation of South Pars gas field projects, said Ahmad Qalebani, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company’s (NIOC). According to Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi, Iran will also issue $15 billion in sukuk (Islamic Sharia-based) bonds in the current year to be invested in the domestic oil industry. The South Pars gas field is shared by Iran and Qatar. The Iranian share, which is divided into 29 phases, has about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, or about eight percent of the total world reserves, and more than 18 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas resources.