TEHRAN Islamic Republic of Iran and Federal Republic of Russia inked a memorandum of understanding here Wednesday on cooperation in the areas of oil, gas and petrochemicals. Russian Oil and Gas Minister Sergei Generalov and his Iranian counterpart Bijan Namdar Zanganeh concluded the initial document which covers delivery of services for oil and gas exploration and extension projects, purchase of equipment and chemicals, cooperation in petrochemical sector and construction of underground gas storage facilities.

Although energy cooperation between Iran and Russia is not something new, the scope of cooperation by signing the memorandum of understanding this week gains momentum and heralds further close cooperation between the two neighboring states. In 1996, the Russian Gasprom showed deep interest in cooperation with Iran when it joined France's Total and Malaysia's Petronas to develop Iranian oil fields in the Persian Gulf. Tehran-Moscow relations are satisfactory for the time being, but taking into consideration the potentials existing in several major fields in the two countries, they can further expand their cooperation.

The fields in which more investment can be made by the two countries are oil, gas, petrochemicals, industries, trade, transportation, agriculture, environment, mining, fisheries, forestry, aeronautics, air and land cargo transportation, tourism, finance and banking. In the course of the forthcoming visit to Moscow by the Iranian Minister of Culture and Higher Education Mostafa Moin, an agreement on bilateral cooperation in technical sciences will be concluded.