Iran has reportedly signed a confidential oil agreement with France’s Total to develop the South Azadegan oilfield shared by Iran and Iraq, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh has said.
Iran and the oil giant Total have agreed to keep the articles of the accord confidential, and the French major is now ‘studying its participation in the development of the oil field’, Zangeneh was quoted as saying by Press TV.
Earlier this month, Zangeneh said that Iran and Total were in talks about the oil field, which is said to hold an in-situ oil reserve of about 33.2bn barrels, according to the report.
Iran reached an agreement with Japan’s Inpex a decade ago to develop the oilfield. However, the Japanese company quit the project as a result of US sanctions against Iran’s energy sector because of the disputed nuclear issue.
Iran and the world powers clinched a nuclear deal in July last year which enables the country to re-engage with the world’s energy giants to develop its oil and gas fields.
