French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said tensions with Iran are "extreme" but insisted there is still room for diplomacy in the nuclear stand-off.
Iran's acting oil minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari said his government will have to "reconsider" a multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas agreement with Total SA because of differences over the price the French oil major would be paid for its gas.
The rate quoted by the French energy group on marketing LNG from the South Pars project is high, which would force Iran to "study the feasibility of this plan once again", the Financial Times quoted him as saying. Total was not immediately available for comment.
The company's CEO Christophe de Margerie said earlier this month that the plan, valued at about US $15 billion, had stalled.
"The estimated cost has doubled between the time we were negotiating the contract and now. So if we cannot solve this issue, we will be stuck," he said.
(AFX News)