Iran, Russia ink oil, gas accord

Tehran, July 14, IRNA - National Iranian Oil Company and the Russian Gazprom on Sunday signed an agreement on development of Iran's oil and gas fields.

Based on the accord, working groups would be formed and a joint company would be set up between the two countries for cooperation inthe oil and gas fields.

The agreement was signed during an official ceremony attended by Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari and several officials from the OilMinistry and NIOC.

The accord was inked by the NIOC Managing Director Seifollah Jashnsazand the head of Board of Directors of Gazprom Aleksy Miller.

The agreement envisaged to boost recovery rates of Iran's oil fieldsand Russian help in transferring Caspian Sea crude oil to the Oman Sea.

The cooperation agreement also included possible participation of Gazprom in the planned peace pipeline that would deliver Iranian gasto India and Pakistan.

Cooperation in the development of Iran's North Azadegan oil field, part of the large Azadegan field in southwestern Iran, was also mootedin the agreement.

The South Pars field in the Persian Gulf has around 500 trillion cubic feet (14 trillion cubic metres) of gas, which accounts for about eightpercent of the world gas reserves.

Azadegan is Iran's biggest onshore oil field with an estimated 42 billion barrels of crude oil in place and production started in February by Iranian firms after the Japanese partner Inpex quit theproject.

Iran sits on the world's second largest proven oil reserves worldwideand is the number four crude producer and the second in the OPEC.

It also has the second biggest proven global gas reserves after Russiabut so far has played only a minor role on the gas export market.