Iran, Iraq Plan Two Oilfields Development

Iran and Iraq have reached an agreement for joint development of the Naft Shahr and Khorramshahr joint oil fields, Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said.

Speaking on Sunday, on during a visit to the Energy Industries Engineering and Design (EIED, an affiliate to the Oil Industries' Engineering and Construction (OIEC)), the official said: "There are massive potentialities for expanding Iran-Iraq cooperation in oil, gas, refining and petrochemicals grounds, and Iran is ready to offer itself capabilities to the Iraqi oil industry.”

He added that Thamer al-Ghadhban, Iraqi minister of oil, during a visit to EIED, learned about the capacities of the company, and it was decided that a joint partnership be established between OIEC and a similar company in Iraq in order to develop joint capacity utilization.”

The official further said that Iran had a lot of potentialities in the oil, gas, refining and petrochemicals sectors, adding: "Given the lack of development in the petrochemicals and gas industries in Iraq, there is a bright perspective for cooperation between the two countries."

He also said that Iran’s gas dues from Iraq stood at a billion dollars already.

Iran the only exporter of natural gas to neighboring Iraq, both members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Iran and Iraq share 1629 kilometers of borders and have 12 joint oil fields including Naft Shahr, Naft Khaneh and Dehloran. The border areas between the two countries are currently affected by floods.