Iran and Russia's Azar field deal

The Azar oilfield

Gazprom have secured another oilfield for themselves in the Middle East with news that they are to sign a contract with Iran on developing the Azar oilfield.

Despite rumours that the relationship between the two countries had become fractured in recent months, with Russia supporting US efforts to get new sanctions from the UN Security Council, it was reported that negotiations were still continuing that it was likely that an arrangement would be reached over the field's development.

A Gazprom spokesman was quoted as saying to Reuters, "We will continue negotiating over the field's master development plan until the end of March."

This was concurred by the  director of the Oil and Gas Control unit at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Bahman Soroushi who said to Iranian paper Poul, "The contract on the development of Azar oilfield will be signed later this (Iranian) month with an Iranian-Russian consortium."

'The contractual details on the development of this oil field were finalised in the course of negotiations between an Iranian NIOC delegation to Russia and Gazprom earlier this year.' March 20 is the last day of the Iranian year.

Rusisa's Iranian ambitions

Last year, it was reported that Gazprom Neft has signed a deal with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to study the development of two Iranian oilfields - one of them was the Azar oil field, the other was Shangule field. These two fields ahve been previously developed by Lukoil.

Then, Gazprom said in a statement that they will "evaluate the project's technical and economic feasibility and then move on to preparing a full-fledged contract". Now it appears that is moving forward.

Iran is said to have some of the biggest oil and gas reserves in the world, and as such its revenue is heavily dependant on energy exports. However recently sanctions and political pressure have seen foreign energy firms keep away from the country due to Iran's nuclear agenda.

It is doubtful that Gazprom and Russia will be heavily criticised by the West, as despite Iran and Russia's tempestuous relationship, they are still the West's go-between in all matters dealing with Ahmadinejad and his government.

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