Iran’s Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) and South Africa’s national oil company PetroSA have signed an agreement covering production of gas to liquids (GTL) in Iran. The deal announced during South African President Jacob Zuma’s state visit to Tehran on Apr. 24 foresees cooperation between PetroSA and RIPI on the transfer of oil blending technology to produce clean fuel and apparently does not have an industrial component.

South African energy and petrochemicals group Sasol had previously pursuing a major project to produce GTL at industrial level in Iran’s South Pars energy zone, reports said, but had to abandon the plans in 2005 due to growing US pressure on foreign investors in Iran as well as unspecified technical hurdles.

Sasol originally planned to produce 600,000 bpd of GTL from South Pars Phase 14 over a period of 10 years. During the Zuma visit, Iran and South Africa also signed a number of other agreements, involving the agriculture industry and water management as well as joint investments and the insurance industry.

The South African president also told a meeting of Iranian and South African businessmen that his country told Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani it wants to increase the volume of trade with Iran to as much as $8 billion from $350 million currently.