Seven Iranian oil fields will be developed in collaboration with Russian companies, according to Iranian oil minister.
Iran signed a $4 billion energy agreement with Russian companies, and Iranian oil minister Mohsen Paknejad announced as the two countries are trying to strengthen relations while trying to deal with punishing Western economic sanctions.
Speaking on state television on Friday, Paknejad said the deal was intended to work with Russian companies to develop seven Iranian oil fields.
From military cooperation to energy, banking to agriculture, Tehran and Moscow have engaged in deeper bonds since the onset of a military conflict in Ukraine and since signing the Strategic Partnership Treaty in January.
Friday’s deal is considered another step in their bid to remove barriers in all areas of their cooperation.
The deal comes as Iran is trying to build momentum for nuclear negotiations with the US, which will resume in Oman on Saturday after consulting with allies in Moscow and Beijing earlier this week.
OPEC
On Thursday, Parknejad met with Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak, Putin’s point man on relations with the organization of the Oil Exporting Country (OPEC).
The meeting took place as several members of OPEC+, a group that makes up its alliance led by OPEC and Russia, suggesting that the group will increase oil production for the second time in June in a row.
The proposed increase underscores the worsening conflict between members over compliance with the production quota.
It also follows a call from US President Donald Trump for Opek, and returns to his return to Iran’s “maximum pressure” policy that wants to cut oil exports to zero.
On Friday, the two countries announced that Moscow could supply Tehran with 1.8 billion cubic meters (BCM) of natural gas this year at a price that has not yet been agreed upon.
Paknejad said the deal was not finalized, but the country was working to reach an agreement as soon as possible, as Russian company Gazprom was implementing it.
Both countries have long debated about the setup of such a hub in Iran due to the possibility of Qatar and Turkmenistan joining.
A long history
Russia has a long history of cooperation with Iran in the field of energy production and supply, helping Tehran build a nuclear reactor in Buscher, the first southern part of Iran.
In January, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Iranian Masudo Pezeshkian in the Kremlin that Russia may ultimately supply Iran with up to 55 billion cubic metres of natural gas.
The 55 bcm figure resembles the throughput of Node Stream 1’s undersea pipeline to Europe, which was damaged by the explosion in 2022 after the war in Ukraine, and has not delivered gas since.
Russian gas giant Gazprom signed a memorandum with an Iranian gas company in June last year to supply Iranian pipeline gas. Possible routes for the pipeline have not been disclosed.