TEHRAN – Italy’s major oil company Eni signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for carrying out development studies on two of Iran’s oil and gas fields.

The MOU was signed by Gholam-Reza Manouchehri, the deputy managing director of NIOC for development and engineering, and Antonio Vella, the chief upstream officer at Eni SpA, in Tehran on Tuesday, Shana reported.

Based on the MOU, the Italian company will conduct development studies on the phase 3 of Darkhovin oil field in southwest Iran as well as Kish gas field in the Persian Gulf.

The company is to hand in its proposed master development plan (MDP) to NIOC after a six-month period.

Royal Dutch Shell, Russia’s Gazprom and Iran’s Ghadir Investment Group are also under contract with NIOC to perform development studies on the Kish gas field.

Philippine’s PNOC Exploration Corporation (PNOC EC) and Ghadir Investment Group have reached agreements to conduct preliminary studies on phase 3 of Darkhovin field.

In August 2011, NIOC and a consortium of Iranian companies signed a $1.6 billion deal to develop the third phase of the Darkhovin oilfield but due to the West imposed sanctions on Iran the project didn’t witness any progress as planned.

Development plan of the Kish gas field started in 2007. The field holds around 66 trillion cubic feet of in-situ gas and 514 million barrels of condensate.

EF/MA