The chief executive of Total confirmed that the French oil major will go ahead with development of phase 11 of the huge South Pars gas field in southern Iran this summer, saying it would make an initial $1 billion investment in the field.
"It is worth taking the risk at $1 billion because it opens a huge market. We are perfectly conscious of some risks. We have taken into account (sanctions) snap-backs, we have to take into account regulation changes," Patrick Pouyanne told Reuters on Tuesday.
Washington has warned that it could cancel the sanctions waivers if it believes Tehran is not curbing its nuclear program in line with its 2015 deal with world powers.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France, and Germany) reached the 159-page nuclear agreement in July 2015 and implemented it in January 2016.
He added, "The US waivers have been renewed and they will be renewed every six to eight months. We have to live with some uncertainty”.
Total holds a 50.1 interest in the South Pars project along with state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, with 30 percent, and Iran's Petropars with a 19.9 percent.
The South Pars 11 project will have a production capacity of 1.8 billion cubic feet per day, or 370 000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The produced gas will be fed into Iran's gas network.