Baku, Azerbaijan, April 11
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh's two-day visit to China lead to numerous agreements with the country's giant oil companies.
Increasing the volume of crude oil and gas condensates' export to China, Beijing's cooperation in new oil and gas projects in Iran, and boosting cooperation in research were the 3 topics on which agreements were made, Mehr news agency reported April 11.
Zanganeh asserted that after international sanctions on Tehran are lifted, Iran and China plan to boost cooperation in various energy sections.
The meetings came one week after Iran's talks with the group P5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) ended in a framework agreement on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
The framework agreement provisions a final deal by July 1 which would remove international sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian oil minister further said that the Iranian and Chinese sides discussed precipitating the implementation of Iran's joint oil field Yadavaran, asserting that the Chinese side is required to complete the field's first phase within 3-4 months.
The sides discussed how Chinese oil companies would pay Iran's long-due petrodollars. The Chinese sides are expected to do so by financing Iran's oil, gas, and petrochemical projects.
Furthermore, speaking on the sidelines of the trip, Zanganeh noted that it is unlikely that after sanctions on Iran are removed, global oil prices would change much.
"I believe that OPEC members are so mature and wise to adjust their output after Iran's return in a way that no danger would threaten oil prices," he stated.
Iran has announced that it would try to redeem its share of the OPEC once free of sanctions.
Iran's current oil production stands at around 1 million barrels a day. The oil is exported to Turkey, India, China, South Korea, and Japan.
China is Iran's biggest trade partner. It absorbed half of Iran's crude export in 2012 when international sanctions on Tehran were tightened.
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