Tehran needs finance as it plans to invest $14bn (£8.3bn) to develop oil and gas fields that it shares with neighbours in the Persian Gulf. The South Pars fields, which combined with Qatar’s North Dome area, is estimated by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to hold 1,800 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 51bn barrels of natural gas condensate – a high-value type of petroleum. The area has made Qatar the largest shipper of LNG in the world and a global energy superpower.