Malaysian state oil firm Petronas is 'very happy' with its investment in Iran and is looking for more deals in the upstream, according to its top executive.

Hassan Marican said the firm had no intent of selling down its 10 per cent stake in the multi-billion-dollar Pars Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project led by Total.

French oil major Total and Petronas will make a final investment decision on the project this year, he said.

'We're very happy. We're there in Iran and we've been there since 1994,' Hassan said.

Echoing officials of Total, Marican vowed to forge ahead despite US pressure on its allies not to invest in Iran.

Although Petronas halved its stake in the project to 10 per cent two years ago, it has no intention of selling down further, Hassan said.

Total holds 40 per cent stake, while the National Iranian Oil Company holds the rest.

'Iran is one of the focus countries that we have identified and we continue to evaluate opportunities in the upstream sector in particular,' he said.

'Off and on we make proposals to the Iranian government for an opportunity to invest.'

Asked whether any deals were imminent, Hassan said: 'Nothing to announce at this moment.'

Total and Petronas first agreed on the LNG project in 2004 with a target start date of 2009, which has since been deferred to 2011 amid years of wrangling common for Iranian deals. TradeArabia News Service