SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates, May 26 (UPI) -- Emirati energy company Crescent Petroleum said it expects to reach an understanding on gas imports from Iran by the beginning of 2011, executives said.
Crescent signed a 25-year gas contract with Iran in 2001 using a pricing system pegged to crude oil prices. As oil began its surge toward $150 per barrel before the global recession in 2008, disputes began over the pricing mechanism.
A tribunal was formed in November to settle the dispute.
The United Arab Emirates could import as much as 540 million cubic feet of gas per day from the Salman gas field in Iran if the deal goes through, the Emirates Business news agency reports.
Natural gas would flow from the Salman field to Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf along a 90-mile pipeline.
Hamid Jafar told the news agency on the sidelines of a regional energy conference that he expected the measure to go through "by early next year."
