Iran, Russia to Set Up Joint Energy Company

Iran’s Oil Minister Gholam-Hussein Nozari has announced that Tehran will soon close a deal with Russia’s Gazprom to form a joint company for implementing energy projects.  

 

 

“We have reached an agreement with Gazprom to form a joint company with the participation of a third country,” Gholam-Hossein Nozari said after a meeting with the energy giant’s Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller. 

 

Nozari said the two sides agreed to set up working groups and Miller would visit Iran within the next two months to finalize the deal. 

 

He added that an agreement had almost been reached on the joint development of two phases of the South Pars gas field. 

 

Nozari said that Gazprom had voiced interest in cooperating with Tehran to develop the upstream and downstream sectors in Iran’s oil and gas industry and implement liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in the country. 

 

Nozari and Miller met here Tuesday and discussed areas of mutual cooperation in the oil and gas sector. 

 

Miller headed a delegation comprising senior Russian oil and gas managers to the talks which also discussed construction of an oil refinery in Armenia with the joint cooperation of Iran and Russia, participation in development of South and North Pars gas fields, development of Kish gas field, cooperation in implementation of gas storage projects in Iran as well as Russia’s cooperation in new exploration projects in Iran. 

 

Tehran-Moscow cooperation for construction of an oil and gas supply pipeline as well as joint oil/gas cooperation in the Caspian Sea were among other issues discussed in the meeting. 

 

A number of senior Iranian oil and gas officials were also present at the meeting. 

 

Nozari had urged Gazprom earlier to submit its proposals for cooperation with Iran till mid-March. 

 

Gazprom has voiced interest in cooperation with the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) in the diagnostics, maintenance, exploitation, and modernization of Iran’s gas network, as well as in raising its transportation and energy efficiency. 

 

Miller and Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Hossein Noghrehkar Shirazi held a working meeting in Moscow in December and identified oil and gas deposit exploration and development – in particular further development of the energy-rich South Pars deposit in Iran – as priority areas for cooperation. Both sides also discussed joint efforts in natural gas transportation, processing, use and marketing, the statement said. 

 

Stages 2 and 3 of the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf were initiated by the international consortium of France””s Total (a 40% stake), Malaysia’s Petronas (30%) and Russia’s Gazprom (30%) in 1997. The consortium built two offshore platforms with ten production wells each, two 100-km (62-mile)-long underwater gas pipelines and an onshore gas plant with annual capacity of 20 billion cubic meters of gas annually. 

 

Iran’s proven gas reserves stand at more than 28 trillion cubic meters. In 2006, Iran produced 105 billion cubic meters of gas. 

 

“We have reached an agreement with Gazprom to form a joint company with the participation of a third country,” Gholam-Hossein Nozari said after a Tuesday meeting with the energy giant’s Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller. 

 

Nozari said the two sides agreed to set up working groups and Miller would visit Iran within the next two months to finalize the deal. 

 

 

Tehran Times