Energy deal delayed

A Sino-Iranian oil and gas deal worth billions of dollars has been delayed until at least the second half of the year because of a pricing disagreement, Reuters reported. In October 2004, Sinopec Group agreed to purchase 10 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Iran annually for 25 years in exchange for access to develop the Yadavaran oil field, in a contract worth up to US$100 billion. �It definitely won�t be signed this month and I can�t see it happening by June either,� an unnamed senior industry official told the news agency. Yadavaran has reserves estimated at 3 billion barrels, and is thought to be able to produce 300,000 barrels a day.