Iran signs $40bn gas deals with Russia’s Gazprom

Iran has signed cooperation agreements with Russian energy firm, Gazprom, worth $40 billion, Petroleum Minister Javad Owji said yesterday.

Iran’s official news agency IRNA quoted Owji saying the agreement includes the construction of LNG complexes in Iran as well as the development of Iran’s gas fields and gas export transmission lines.

Owji also said that Tehran is to follow up on the progress of the different cooperation agreements signed between the two sides.

Iran has started the swap of oil and petroleum products with Russia and is discussing the possibility of a gas swap with Russia, Owji said. Adding that he hoped the gas swap deal could be reached this winter.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy, Mehdi Safari, said in October that Iran’s plan was to import Russian gas while exporting Iranian gas to foreign markets, Xinhua reported.

Safari said this would reduce the cost of transferring Iranian gas from the country’s southern regions to the north.

READ: Iran to purchase gas from Russia