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Moscow: Russia's Gazprom, the world's top gas producer, said it will take on big new energy projects in Iran, a move likely to anger the US which wants Tehran isolated over its nuclear work.
State-controlled Gaz-prom, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas needs, said it had agreed to develop more phases of Iran's giant South Pars gas field and drill in the country's oilfields. Tehran said the deals had been "almost finalised".
The deal could raise eyebrows of some investors in Gazprom, one of the world's top 10 most valued stocks, as it seeks to boost its presence in the US, which has urged foreign firms to cut business ties with Iran.
Gazprom said in a statement the deal had been clinched on Tuesday at talks between its chief executive Alexei Miller and Iranian energy minister Gholamhossein Nozari. It did not give any figures on investment.
"The two sides have agreed to jointly develop two or three blocks of South Pars as well as Gazprom Neft's participation in oil production projects in Iran," the statement said. Gazprom Neft is Gaz-prom's oil arm.
The shares of Gazprom closed two per cent up in Moscow before the deal was announced and 2.16 per cent in London after the statement was released. The stock outperformed the broader Micex oil and gas index.
Gazprom, together with France's Total and Malay-sia's Petronas, has already invested in the second and third phases of the massive South Pars gas field, a project worth around $2 billion.
Between 2000-2007, Russia invested close to $4 billion in Iran, according to the US-based American Enterprise Institute.
A top Gazprom official "will travel to Tehran in two months in order to fin-alise this round of negotiations," the Iranian oil ministry's news website Shana quoted Nozari as saying.
The agreement takes place as Iran is calling on Russia to set up a gas exporters' group on the lines of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), an idea that has sent jitters among top customers and politicians in Europe.
Moscow says better co-ordination is needed between key gas producers and consumers but rebuffs the idea of a formal group which would influence prices.
Russia has been reluctant to impose more UN sanctions on Iran.
Plan
Upstream role
Iran produces 100 billion cubic metres of gas a year, less than a fifth of Gazprom's output of 550 bcm, but has ambitious plans to grow it further mainly due to South Pars.
"Gazprom has expressed a desire to be present in the upstream sector and also LNG [liquefied natural gas] projects," Iran oil's minister Gholamhossein Nozari said. At least one LNG unit would use gas from two phases of South Pars.
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