NCRI - Oil major Royal Dutch Shell and Spain's Repsol have pulled out of one of Iranian regime's biggest gas projects, dealing a blow to the regime's attempts to expand its energy exports in the face of international sanctions.

Royal Dutch Shell on Sunday announced that the world's second-largest oil company is pulling out of the $10bn-plus development of Phase 13 of South Pars, the world's largest gas field.

Financial Times reported that the two company's decision is made as Washington intensifies pressure on international companies to stop working with the Iranian regime.

People close to the companies cited geopolitical uncertainty and spiraling costs as the reasons behind the decision, the report added.

Shell, Spain's Repsol and the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2002 to develop Phase 13 in a project to be known as Persian LNG.

At the time, Shell said deliveries of liquefied natural gas -- gas cooled to liquid under pressure for transportation in special tankers -- could begin in 2007.