Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 23
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has said talks were held with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev Feb. 23 on jointly producing oil and gas resources in the Caspian Sea.
"Regarding energy [sector], we held constructive talks on the issues of oil and gas, power exchange, as well as joint production of oil and gas resources in the Caspian Sea," Rouhani said after a meeting with President Aliyev in Tehran, Trend's correspondent reported from the event venue.
Rouhani, however, didn't specify which oil and gas fields were discussed during the talks with President Ilham Aliyev.
Iran's NICO has a 10-percent share in the development of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field located in the Caspian Sea.
The contract for the development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed June 4, 1996. The field's reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
Apart from NICO, the agreement parties are: the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR, 16.7 percent), BP (28.8 percent), Norway's Statoil (15.5 percent), France's Total (10 percent), Russia's Lukoil (10 percent) and Turkish TPAO (9 percent).
Rouhani further said talks were held with Azerbaijani president for further cooperation regarding insurance, banks and joint investment, particularly in the Araz, Anzali and Maku free trade zones.
He added that economic and political issues, as well as cultural and tourism topics, including shipping and aviation, were also discussed during the talks.
Calling for expansion of bilateral ties, President Rouhani welcomed President Aliyev and said that over the past 2.5 years this is the fifth time that Iranian and Azerbaijani presidents meet each other.
Apart from that, Rouhani said trilateral cooperation within the Iran-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan, Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia, Iran-Azerbaijan-Georgia, and Iran-Azerbaijan-Turkey frameworks was discussed during the talks.