“Neighborhood of Iran and Russia considering their hold on strategic gas resources as well as determination of the two countries’ political leadership are significant reasons which can create appropriate opportunities in their bilateral relations,” he said at a meeting here with Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Hamid-Reza Araqi.
“Gazprom has useful and precious experience in various fields of the gas industry and can provide them to the NIGC,” Shana quoted him saying.
“We are interested in turning the initial agreements to a memorandum of understanding which can be signed next year,” Medvedev added.
“It is evident that the world needs gas and that Iran and Russia can use such a rich capacity to pursue their joint objectives in this field,” NIGC managing director said following the meeting.
“NIGC has considerable experience, for example, in construction of gas pipelines, storage facilities, and gas refineries and can cooperate with Gazprom in these areas,” he said.
The two delegations were planned to negotiate implementation of agreements reached on joint engineering, operation, commercial, and research projects, said NIGC director of international relations, Azizollah Ramezani.
“NIGC and Gazprom will hold several rounds of talks to review cooperation areas under five committees,” he said prior to the first round of meetings with the 25-member Russian delegation.