Azernews.Az

Iran intends to expand cooperation with Azerbaijan in the oil and gas sector, its top official said on a visit to Baku last week.
Iranian Deputy Oil Minister and Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Seyed Reza Kasaiezadeh, said in a meeting with the president of the state oil company SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev that his country was following with great interest the rampant development of the Azerbaijani economy, and the oil industry in particular.
Kasaiezadeh highly assessed the contribution of the two countries' oil and gas companies in taking bilateral relations to the current level, expressing hope that this cooperation would further deepen in the future.
Abdullayev, in turn, praised the development of efficient partnership between Azerbaijani and Iranian companies.
The sides also touched on the participation of Iran's NICO company in tapping the biggest Azerbaijani offshore field Shahdaniz and pointed out efficient operation of the international consortium in charge of implementing the project.
The Iranian delegation's visit to Baku is linked to the neighboring country's aspiration to purchase Shahdaniz gas.
The Shahdaniz field launched production in 2006. The field holds estimated reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. The resources are used both to meet domestic demand and for exports to energy-hungry European markets through the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline.
The parties to the Shahdaniz Production Sharing Agreement are: BP (operator - 25.5%), Statoil (25.5%), SOCAR (10%), Russian giant LUKoil (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%), and TPAO (9%).