Iran and Russia on Friday reached a deal on 55 billion cubic metres of Russian gas supplies a year.
Although prices are yet to be agreed, Russia also pledged to fund construction of a new nuclear power plant in Iran.
DAILY POST reports that the preliminary agreements came as the United States is making efforts to isolate Iran from the rest of the world unless Tehran agrees to a new deal for inspections of its nuclear facilities.
Russia is said to have deepened ties with Iran since the start of the military conflict in Ukraine and signed a strategic partnership treaty with Tehran in January.
Both countries are reportedly under Western sanctions and Moscow’s oil and gas exports to Europe have drastically declined.
Russia has a long history of cooperation with Iran and helped build a nuclear reactor at Bushehr in the south of the country, Iran’s first.
Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad has been on a visit this week in Moscow. On Friday he met Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev at an intergovernmental commission.
Paknejad said both countries agreed on a 55 bcm gas transfer agreement, while a new nuclear power plant in Iran would be constructed with financing from Moscow’s credit line.
Despite holding the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia, Iran imports gas, including from Turkmenistan, due to severe under-investment caused in part by US sanctions.
At a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in January in the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin, already said Russia may eventually supply up to 55 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year to Iran, though starting from lower volumes of up to 2 bcm.
A figure of 55 bcm would be similar to the throughput of the Nord Stream 1 undersea pipelines to Europe that were damaged by blasts in 2022 and have not delivered any gas since then.
Speaking on state TV earlier on Friday, Paknejad said Iran will sign a $4 billion agreement with Russian companies to develop seven Iranian oilfields.
Iran, Russia reach consensus on gas supplies, nuclear plant funding
