Zarubezhneft, NIOC may sign deal on Iranian oil devt till Mar-end

MOSCOW, Dec 28 (PRIME) -- Russian oil company Zarubezhneft and National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) have coordinated conditions of joint development of the Aban and West Paydar oil fields in Iran and plan to sign a contract until the end of March 2018, NIOC’s subsidiary Iranian Central Oil Fields Company (ICOFC) said on Thursday.

“After a week of intensive negotiations…agreements were reached on major points of the contract on development of the Aban and West Paydar fields…The contract will be worked out and signed until the end of the current (Iranian) year (which ends in March 2018), and implementation of the plan will start,” NIOC's unit said.

Zarubezhneft is to invest about U.S. $350 million in development of the fields, mainly in construction and exploitation of modern pumps and pumping equipment at all wells of the fields. The investment is to increase oil production of the two fields by 65 million barrels over the next 10 years.

A representative of Zarubezhneft declined to comment on the matter. In July, Zarubezhneft CEO Sergei Kudryashov said the company planned to sign an oil contract with Iran on development of the two fields until the end of 2017.

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