Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari on Tuesday said Tehran expects to sign an oil and gas cooperation agreement with Russian energy giant Gazprom in the near future, Fars News Agency reported on Wednesday. Nozari said negotiations were currently underway with Gazprom to develop several sites at the South Pars gas field in the Gulf and the North Azadegan oil deposit in the country's south. “We hope these negotiations will be successfully concluded in the near future,” Nozari said. Gazprom has been participating in the development of the South Pars field's second and third stages together with France's TotalElf and Malaysia's Petronas. The facility is operating in design mode to produce and process 20 billion cu m of gas annually. Iran's proven natural gas reserves total over 28 trillion cubic meters. In 2006, gas production in the republic was 105 billion cu m, with consumption standing at 105.1 billion cu m. Gas accounts for 53 percent of the country's energy balance, oil 44 percent, the hydropower industry 2 percent and coal 1 percent. South Pars holds 60 percent of Iran's reserves, and 10 percent of known global reserves of natural gas. The deposit is a part of the North Dome deposit, the largest non-associated gas field in the world, situated in Qatar and Iran. The North Azadegan field has reserves of about 33 billion barrels of crude. Meantime, Iran and Gazprom signed a deal on Wednesday to develop oil and gas fields, and invest and engage in exploration of energy reserves. Iran and Gazprom have signed a memorandum of understanding to have bilateral cooperation in development of oil and gas fields, as well as investment and exploratory studies, managing director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Seifollah Jashnsaz said. Discussions are underway with Iran's oil minister to turn the agreement into a contract, he added. Earlier, Gazprom said the two sides agreed on joint development of two or three blocs in the South Pars gas field as well as on the participation by GazpromNeft in an oil production project in Iran. Ties between Russia and Iran have deepened in recent years, despite efforts by the West to isolate Tehran for its peaceful nuclear program and this agreement further consolidates Russia's trade and commercial ties with Iran. Meanwhile, South Korea National Oil Corporation has announced a drop of 25.7 percent in its oil imports from Iran in March. According to a television report, the world's increasing oil prices led to a decrease of about 10 percent in South Korea's oil imports compared to the same period a year ago, with the country's refineries preferring to utilize their oil reserves rather than importing oil. Based on the report, South Korea's oil reserves of the private sector declined 10.7 percent to less than 65 million barrels in March. The global oil price in March spiked to an average of $100 which was $50 to $60 higher than the same period last year. South Korea's oil imports from Saudi Arabia rose 1.3 percent to 22 million barrels while its imports from Iran and Oman declined by 25.7 percent and 28.6 percent respectively in March. __
