TEHRAN – Russian Public Joint Stock Company TATNEFT signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with National Iranian South Oilfields Company (NISOC) for carrying oilfield development studies in southwestern Iran, Shana reported.

The MOU for preliminary studies on Shadegan oilfield in Khuzestan province was signed by the two sides’ representatives in Tehran on Sunday.

According to the agreement, TATNEFT will carry out studies on the field and the company is to hand the results and its proposal to NISOC in six months.

“The MOU is under the framework of NISOC contracts and hopefully we will sign two other MOUs under such frameworks in the upcoming weeks,” Hamid Deris, the NISOC’s director for technical affairs, said in the signing ceremony.

The Russian envoy for his part expressed satisfaction with the agreement saying we hope the cooperation between the two sides will be enhanced further in the future.

According to Gholamreza Manouchehri, the deputy managing director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for development and engineering affairs, Iran has received 25 Management Development Programs (MDP) for the development of its oilfields from foreign companies since the sanctions were lifted in January 2016.

TATNEFT is a Russian vertically integrated oil and gas company; it is the sixth largest oil company in Russia.

EF/MA