BISHKEK (TCA) — Days after reports emerged that Russia is pushing ahead a plan to export natural gas to Pakistan and India through Iran, there appeared indications about the possible source of supply for the ambitious project, Iran’s PressTV news agency reported on November 5.
Iran’s Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh told reporters on November 4 that Russian companies could take away a certain amount of the oil at a field they had developed in compensation for the investment they had made in it.
“In case the development of an oil field by Russians leads to production, they can receive a certain amount of what Iran owes them for their investment as oil,” Zanganeh was quoted by Iran’s IRNA news agency as saying.
The Iranian minister did not say that the same formula could be applied for reimbursing the Russians for their future investments in Iran’s gas industry. However, the same formula could support speculations that the recently unveiled plan to export gas to Pakistan and India would be based on the assumption that supplies would be provided from fields developed by Russians.
Those supplies could be provided from the major gas fields that Russian companies are negotiating to develop in Iran. They include North Pars, Kish, Farzad A and Farzad B.
A number of documents were signed in Tehran on the margins of the visit to Iran by Russian President Vladimir Putin last week.
Russian gas giant Gazprom and National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) inked a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on the construction project for the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, Gazprom said on November 3.
Thanks to the Memorandum, Gazprom and NIOC will start developing a feasibility study for the design, construction and operation of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.
On November 1, 2017, the Russian Energy Ministry and the Iranian Petroleum Ministry inked the Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on the construction project for the Iran-Pakistan-India offshore gas pipeline.
