The CEO of Total has acknowledged that the French energy major would have to review its multi-billion-dollar Iranian South Pars gas field investment should the US opt to impose fresh major unilateral sanctions on Tehran.

Patrick Pouyanne conceded the point in comments made on the CNNMoney Emerging Markets programme late on November 13, pointing out that Total has major assets in the US. His remarks will come as a blow to Iranian officials who hailed the deal as a post-nuclear sanctions breakthrough in the government campaign to reinvigorate foreign direct investment levels in Iran. Iranian MPs have lately been questioning why Total has moved so slowly with the investment in the Phase 11 development of South Pars, the world's largest gas field. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is also involved in the deal.

“Either we can do the deal legally if there is a legal framework [but] if we cannot do that for legal reasons, because of [a] change of [the] regime of sanctions, then we have to revisit it,” Pouyanne said.

He added: “We work in the US, we have assets in the US, we just acquired more assets in the US.”

Pouyanne's words presumably also apply to major petrochemical investments which Total hopes to roll out in Iran.

Many Western investors and international banks are still shying away from the Islamic Republic, given the hostility being shown to the country by the Trump administration and the anxiety that the introduction of further American sanctions on Iran may be on the horizon.

In November, US President Donald Trump declined to formally recertify Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal, despite the insistence of all the major powers that signed the accord, except for the US, as well as UN nuclear inspectors, that Tehran is sticking to what was agreed to prevent it moving towards the development of a nuclear weapon. Trump warned that if Congress does not alter the deal to his satisfaction by around mid-December he may end American participation in it.