TEHRAN, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will sign a contract with a Norwegian oil and gas company in the next few days to build the country's first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) unit in the Persian Gulf, an Iranian energy official said, according to a Financial Tribune report on Saturday.
"NIOC plans to sign the deal with Norway's Hemla Vantage next week, based on which the European firm will construct an FLNG unit with a production capacity of 500,000 tons per year," the managing director of the NIOC, Ali Kardor, said on Friday.
"The contract will allow the Norwegian firm to operate in Iran's market for 20 years," Kardor was quoted as saying.
An FLNG facility is a seaborne structure that would produce, liquefy, store and transfer LNG at sea before carriers ship it directly to markets.
Iran exports its gas through pipelines to neighbors in the north and the west, but has failed to capitalize on the increasingly lucrative LNG market.
