Iran confirms oil, gas agreements with Russia to be signed in 6 months

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Iranian Deputy Energy Minister Ahmad Asadzadeh told Sputnik on Thursday that Iran hopes for expanding energy cooperation with Russia, anticipating bilateral oil and gas agreements to be signed within the next six months.

"In the course of the latest negotiations between Russia and Iran we have managed to achieve progress on the issue of memorandum realization with Gazprom. I hope that we will manage to conclude several agreements in the next six months," Asadzadeh said.

On July 19, Russian energy giant Gazprom and the National Iranian Oil Company signed a memorandum that locked in on strategic cooperation between the two countries, through which the firms mutually agreed on the possibility of the development of Iranian oil fields, the implementation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, and the construction of gas pipelines.

That memorandum included Moscow investing $40 billion in developing the Kish gas field and the northern Fars oil field, increasing the production of the lower Fars gas field, and developing six Iranian oil fields.

Asadzadeh expressed hope that the energy market's current conditions would expedite "greater Russian-Iranian cohesion in developing joint projects in oil, gas and petrochemical sectors."

In August, plans for a gas swap agreement between the National Iranian Gas Company and Russia were confirmed by Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji, who said, "The gas swap agreement with Russia will be signed in the near future in Moscow between the National Iranian Gas Company and Russian companies; Negotiations were also held regarding the swap of petroleum products; Iran has many capacities in the field of the sea, railway and land transportation for the development of swap."

A meeting of the Russian-Iranian commission on trade and economic cooperation is due to be held in  November, according to a text in the Kremlin's materials from the SCO summit in Samarkand.    

"There is a permanent Russian-Iranian commission on trade and economic cooperation (Russian co-chairman - Alexander Novak). Its next meeting is scheduled to be held in November this year," the materials said. The trade between the two countries in 2021 increased by 81.4% to $4.1 billion, and surpassed $3 billion for the period of January-August, the text read.