Iran, Russia to boost business partnership

By Azernews

By Nigar Abbasova

The Islamic Republic of Iran which is keen to reinforce its economy and recover it from the negative effects of long-standing international sanctions, strengthens its all-round cooperation with Russia, one of the strategic allies of the Middle Eastern country.

Energy sphere

Tehran is determined to take its energy cooperation with Moscow to a new level following the removal of sanctions.  

Russia's Gazprom Neft and National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a memorandum of understanding on December 13 for feasibility studies on the development of two oil fields.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Iranian counterpart, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, were present at the signing ceremony in Tehran.

Under the agreement, Gazprom will study both Changouleh and Cheshmeh-Khosh oil fields, located in Western Iran.

Following the ceremony, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said that the Islamic Republic plans to assign development of seven oil fields to Russian companies, mentioning that it would develop and increase the recovery rate of the fields. Iran’s oil fields’ recovery rate is about 25 percent on average, but some of giant fields like Yadavaran and Azadegan have about 6-7 percent recovery. Iran has already signed a memorandum of understanding with Lukoil on studying Ab-Teymour and Mansouri fields which contain over 5 billion barrels of recoverable reserves.

Zanganeh also said that Iran has signed MoUs with Russian Zarubezhneft on West Paydar and Aban oil fields as well as with Tatneft Company on Dehloran oil field. All fields are among those offered by Iran foreigners (total number of such fields is 49) based on the newly designed model contracts, also-known as the Iran Petroleum Contract or IPC. The sides earlier signed a memorandum on the cooperation in the sphere of oil and energy, which covered such spheres as oil exploration and extraction, development of oil fields and swap operations.

Visa regime

Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei predicted that negotiations between Tehran and Moscow about the removal of visa requirements for nationals of the two countries could start next year, mentioning that the Islamic Republic is ready to cancel visa regime with Russia, while Moscow prefers not to be in a hurry and cancel the regime only for tourists on preliminary basis.

Sanaei earlier said the countries agreed to facilitate travel between the two countries in three stages.

Business cooperation

A major Russian trade delegation of around 600 business people arrived in Iran on December 11 for three days of talks with their Iranian counterparts to explore ways to boost trade relations between the two countries.

The current level of trade between the two countries stands at below $2 billion, while both countries are determined to double the index by the end of 2017.