Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said during a visit to Moscow yesterday that Iran would boost co-operation with Russia in agriculture, banking, fuel and gas, while removing barriers in all spheres of co-operation between the two countries.
Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev, speaking alongside Paknejad, said that Russia may supply 1.8 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Iran this year, at a price yet to be agreed.
Russia has deepened ties with Iran since the start of the military conflict in Ukraine and signed a strategic partnership treaty with Tehran in January. Both countries are under Western sanctions.
Russia has a long history of co-operation with Iran and helped build a nuclear reactor at Bushehr in the south of the country, Iran’s first.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in January in the Kremlin, said Russia may eventually supply up to 55bcm of gas per year to Iran, though starting from lower volumes of up to 2bcm.
A figure of 55bcm would be similar to the throughput of the Nord Stream 1 undersea pipelines to Europe that were damaged by blasts in 2022 and have not delivered any gas since then.
Speaking on state TV earlier yesterday, Paknejad said Iran will sign a $4bn agreement with Russian companies to develop seven Iranian oilfields.
He and the Russian minister signed a final document of bilateral agreements after a meeting of a Russo-Iranian economic co-operation commission, but the details were not disclosed.
Russian gas giant Gazprom signed a memorandum last June with the National Iranian Gas Company to supply Russian pipeline gas to Iran. Possible routes for the pipeline have not been disclosed.
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