Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 9 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /
Executive Vice President of Italy's biggest oil firm for North Africa and Middle-East Region Guido Michelotti underlined on Tuesday that his company, Eni, has developed Iran's Darkhovin oil field without paying any attention to the pressures and sanctions imposed against Tehran by certain western states, FNA reported.
"We completed the plan for the development of Darkhovin oil field through cooperation with Iranian experts irrespective of the pressures and embargoes," Michelotti told reporters.
He also reiterated that Eni, which has cooperated with the Iranian side since the very first day of the implementation of the developmental plans for Darkhovin oil field's first and second phases, has been committed to its undertakings despite all the different kinds of pressures exerted on his company.
"Given the existence of foreign pressures, implementation of most projects in Iran is challenging and complicated, yet, we have always been interested in cooperation with the Iranian side since we feel proud of cooperation with Iran," Michelotti said.
Darkhovin, a field in Southwestern Iran near the Iraqi border, was being developed by Italy's oil and gas group Eni for Iran's Arvandan Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
Eni signed a $550 million deal with Iran's state oil company in 2001 to develop the field. It brought the first phase on line in 2005 and then started its work in the second phase.
Iran, which sits on the world's second largest reserves of both oil and gas, is facing US sanctions over its civilian nuclear program.
Iranian officials have dismissed US sanctions as inefficient, saying that they are finding Asian partners instead. Several Chinese and other Asian firms are negotiating or signing up to oil and gas deals.
Following US pressures on companies to stop business with Tehran, many western companies decided to do a balancing act. They tried to maintain their presence in Iran, which is rich in oil and gas, but not getting into big deals that could endanger their interests in the US.
Yet, after oil giants in the West witnessed that their absence in big deals has provided Chinese, Indian and Russian companies with excellent opportunities to sign up to an increasing number of energy projects and earn billions of dollars, many western firms are increasingly showing interest to invest or expand work in Iran.
Some European countries have also recently voiced interest in investment in Iran's energy sector after a gas deal was signed between Iran and Switzerland regardless of US sanctions.
The National Iranian Gas Export Company and Switzerland's Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft Laufenburg signed a 25-year deal in March 2010 for the delivery of 5.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
The biggest recent deal, worth €100m ($147m, £80m), was signed by Steiner Prematechnik Gastec, the German engineering company, last year to build equipment for three gas conversion plants in Iran.