U.S. official due in KL, Jakarta over Iran deals
U.S. official due in KL, Jakarta over Iran deals
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): A senior State Department official
will visit Malaysia this week to review an investment by state
oil company Petronas in Iran that could trigger U.S. sanctions, a
U.S. official said yesterday.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy, Sanctions and
Commodities William Ramsay was due to arrive in Kuala Lumpur on
Wednesday for two days of talks, a U.S. embassy official said.
Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat said last week that
Ramsay would try to determine if the financial crisis in Asia had
affected Petronas's plans to participate in a US$2 billion
project in Iran's South Pars offshore gas field.
"It is another opportunity for him (Ramsay) to touch base with
officials here," the U.S. official said, adding that Ramsay's
schedule had not yet been firmly established.
Washington says the gas deal involving Petroliam Nasional Bhd
(Petronas), France's Total SA and Russia's Gazprom and signed
last September violates the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996.
The law requires the president to impose sanctions on any
foreign company that invests $20 million or more a year in Iran's
oil and gas sector.
U.S. criticism of the deal in Iran has sparked outrage in
Malaysia.
The State Department has also been reviewing whether a
separate $180 million deal in Iran's energy sector between
Indonesia's Bakrie Minorak Petroleum and Canada's Bow Valley
Energy Ltd violates the law.
Ramsay was expected to visit Jakarta during his trip to the
region, the U.S. diplomat said.
Last November, the lower house of parliament overwhelmingly
approved a motion criticizing the U.S. investigation into
Petronas's investment in Iran.
Petronas chief executive Hassan Marican said last month that
his firm would not withdraw from the investment which is part of
its strategy to become a global company.
The chairman of the House International Relations Committee,
Rep Benjamin Gilman, a New York Republican, last week criticized
the administration for taking too long to reach a decision.
Gilman told President Bill Clinton that his administration had
three weeks to decide whether foreign companies had violated the
U.S. law, but the State Department rejected the deadline.
State Department spokesman James Rubin said on Friday that the
administration was reviewing whether the Asian economic crisis
could cause Petronas and Bakrie Minorak Petroleum to abandon
plans their plans to invest in Iran.
Eizenstat said the administration expected to make a decision
"sometime in the near future".