Russian companies play active role in Iran’s energy sector
By Fatma Babayeva
Lifting sanctions opened new opportunities for Iran to boost its long stagnated energy industry.
Russian companies play an increasingly active role in the energy sector of Iran as the Islamic Republic is now free of sanctions and open for the international cooperation.
The statement was made by Jafar Pourfarjoudi, spokesman of the Iran’s Petroleum Ministry to Trend news agency on May 16.
Russia's gas giant Gazprom plans a visit to Iran in the near future to discuss several issues including cooperation in Iran’s natural gas projects, said Pourfarjoudi.
He further elaborated that the visit will take place within the framework of the negotiations on energy issues between Russia and Iran, which began a year ago.
Gazprom plans to send a delegation comprised of 30 representatives of the energy sector to Tehran.
Pourfarjoudi noted that Iran’s Petroleum Ministry shores up the Iranian companies’ cooperation with foreign partners who will be willing to offer its technology and know-how to the Islamic Republic.
Iran eyes boosting gas production from the current 700 million cubic meters per day to above 1.3 billion cubic meters per day by 2020-2021 which will enable the country to export 200 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.
In the meantime, Iran plans to reach pre-sanctions volumes of oil production (4 million barrels per day) by July and pre-sanction oil export volume (2.2 million barrels per day) by the end of this summer.
Russian companies are keen on cooperating in the development of Iranian oil and gas fields in the post-sanctions era.
Previously, in January 2016, right after the sanctions on Iran were lifted, Leonid Fedun, vice president of Russian Lukoil said that the company is not ready to participate in the projects in Iran at the current price of oil. However, Lukoil purchased crude oil from Iran to supply its refinery in Romania because of legal issues the company faced in supplying crude to European countries due to sanctions imposed on Russia.
What’s more, Tehran and Moscow have been in discussions on the swap of oil and gas over the past several years. Under a possible swap plan, Russia will supply oil and gas to northern Iran, and the Islamic Republic, in return, is expected to deliver oil and gas on behalf of Russia to Moscow’s customers in the Persian Gulf.
In the longer term, it seems that Iran is aligning its oil and gas strategy more closely with Russian energy companies, said earlier Mehrdad Emadi, consultant at the U.K.-based Betamatrix International Consultancy.
Currently, Iran is looking for investment to improve its oil industry. The new oil investment framework known as Iran Petroleum Contract will be unveiled by July, according to the Iranian officials.
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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva
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