MNA � Oil Industries' Engineering and Construction (OIEC) has inked a cooperation agreement with Russia�s Gazprom over development of Azar and Changuleh oilfields.

Upon finalization of several months of negotiations, managing directors of OIEC and Gazprom signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for partnership in the project for development of Azar and Changuleh oil fields in Iran. The agreement was inked on Thursday July 27 in St. Petersburg.

The two sides had reached a Non-Disclosure Agreement last year as a result which a series of meetings were held to discuss technical, financial, legal and contractual were discussed.

A technical committee of the Iranian firm finally made a visit to the Russian city of St. Petersburg to finalize the talk after which an MoU was signed in a bid to prepare OIEC and Gazprom for sealing a contract on development of the two Iranian fields within framework of new oil contracts dubbed as Iranian Petroleum Contracts.

OIEC launched the first phase of Azar joint oilfield, with a capacity of 15,000 barrels per day, in mid-March last year, and during two months, the cumulative production of the field reached a million barrels. According to OIEC�s CEO, the second phase of early production of Azar field, with an output level of 30,000 barrels per day, has been operational since late April and will be producing 65,000 barrels next year.

Azar joint oilfields, with 2.5 billion barrels of oil in place and API of about 32 to 33, is located in the Anaran block located on the nose of Zagros Mountains and along the border between Iran and Iraq between the two cities of Mehran and Dehloran. The field is one of the hardest hydrocarbon fields in Iran and the world in terms of drilling and development.

Gazprom is among the international companies approved by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to participate in the implementation of projects for the development of hydrocarbon fields of Iran, and IEC had begun negotiations with the Russian company to develop Azar field. Russia's Gazprom Oil Company is the largest holder of natural gas reserves in the world and currently generates 1.8 million barrels per day. The Russian oil company, 50.2 percent of which is owned by the Russian government, earns more than $ 90 billion of revenue annually.