Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.13/ Trend F.Milad
Tehran and Moscow are negotiating the possibility of Russian companies' participation in Iran's oil projects, Iran's oil ministry's spokesman said on Wednesday.
The two sides are not negotiating about any specific oil field, but Iran welcomes Russian companies' participation in its major oil and gas fields, the Fars News Agency quoted Mohammad Nikzad as saying.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday that small Russian banks are participating schemes to finance Iranian oil exports which are the target of U.S. and European sanctions against Tehran, Reuters reported.
"Large banks are not taking part, but small ones are. Major banks are not involved as they have taken into consideration the possibility of any sanctions which they might be subjected to," Novak said.
Novak, who spoke after a meeting with Iranian Foreign Ali Akbar Salehi in Moscow, declined to name either the banks involved or the scale and nature of their possible financing of oil exports from Iran.
Salehi, who is in Moscow on a trade mission, said that Russian companies would be welcome to participate in developing the growing oil industry of the OPEC member state.
In 2011, the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring buyers of Iranian oil to make significant cuts to their oil purchases, or risk being cut off from the U.S. financial system.
The European Union followed suit by imposing sanctions last July against Iran's oil and shipping industries which barred Europe-based insurers from covering tankers that carry Iranian oil.
Later, it also added bans on financial transactions and sales to Iran of shipping equipment, among other measures.