Iran Announces Signing of Memorandum of Understanding with Russia for ‘Major Oil Investment’
The CEO of Iran’s National Oil Company announced the signing of a “memorandum of understanding” with Russia’s Gazprom valued at “$40 billion,” calling it “the largest foreign investment in the history of Iran’s oil industry.”
Mohsen Khajeste-Mehr stated on Tuesday, July 19, that these memoranda include the development of oil and gas fields, LNG projects, and pipeline lines.
The memorandum was signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Iran and was signed by Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of Gazprom, and Khajeste-Mehr.
His remarks regarding the “$40 billion” memorandum come despite the fact that unlike contracts, memoranda of understanding are not assigned a specific value. A memorandum of understanding signifies the parties’ agreement to negotiate regarding a project, which can lead to signing a contract and determining investment or operational commitments.
In this case, while only a memorandum has been signed so far, Khajeste-Mehr announced that “the Russians will invest tens of billions of dollars in developing Iran’s oil and gas fields.”
Gazprom, however, published only a brief two-paragraph news item on its official website about the “memorandum’s” objectives and, unlike Iranian officials and given the nature of the memorandum and the undefined investment, did not mention any figures.
Nevertheless, Khajeste-Mehr stated that the development of the Kish gas field and the development of the North Pars gas field with a $10 billion investment by Gazprom have been signed by both parties, and by carrying out this investment and developing these two gas fields, it is planned to add “over one hundred million cubic meters per day” to the country’s gas production.
Gazprom had also signed a memorandum for studying and developing these fields after the JCPOA in 2017, but never took any action.
Mohsen Khajeste-Mehr announced that the development of 6 oil fields by Gazprom has also been signed in the memorandum between the parties, and another major project that will be carried out with a $15 billion investment by Russia’s Gazprom: pressure maintenance in the South Pars gas field to maintain and increase production from this important gas field.
He added that the Mansouri oil field, Abtimur, Kanj, Azer, and Changuleh are among other fields that are planned to be developed with Russian capital in the memorandum between the parties.
This is while Iran’s National Oil Company had signed memoranda with “Gazprom Neft,” Gazprom’s oil arm, over the development of the Changuleh field in 2016 and 2017, and with Russia’s Lukoil over the development of the Abtimur and Kanj fields, but nothing came to fruition.
Source: Radio Farda
