Mahhmoud Zirakchianzadeh added the contract was signed by Iranian Minister of Petroleum Seyed Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh and Oman’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Maqbool bin Ali Sultan.

“To put the agreement into practice, a joint work committee will be formed within a month and the agreed articles will be put on agenda four months after its setup,” he said.

According to the first article, Iran would export one billion cubic feet of gas to Oman – 23 million cubic meters per day, said Zirakchianzadeh, adding some part of the gas, due to Oman’s need, would be exported to that country in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and Iran would get involve in its sales procedures.

Elaborating on the price of export-bound gas, the IOOC head said the issue should be studied and Iran would export gas to Oman at the latest price.

The development of Hengam joint field and Oman’s investment in Iranian oil and gas fields were among other topics the two sides reached an agreement, he added.

By investing in Iran’s reserves, Oman would meet some part of its gas need, said the official, adding Kish gas field was picked as the first area for Oman’s investment.

“Iran and Oman also agreed to develop and produce of a third country’s gas and export the commodity to Oman via Iran,” Zirakchianzadeh said.

The other article urged the two parties to establish a joint company to make investments in the project of exports of Iran’s gas to Oman, to implement the development plans of Iranian oil and gas fields, to carry out and other joint activities, added the IOOC chief.

“The fifth article obliges the two states to transfer the technology to each other.”

Petroiran Development Company (PEDCO) will start preparing the Master Development Plan (MDP) of the Persian Gulf’s Hengam gas field on May 22.

According to the schedule, the studies on Hengam field will end before May 22 and the PEDCO will put the MDP top on agenda thereafter.

According to the report of Iran’s Oil Engineering and Development Company (OEDC) on Hengam, 32.76 million dollars and 20 billion rials (2.1 million dollars) have been so far spent for the studies on the gas field, equaling to 92.52 percent of the predicted cost.

PEDCO also reported that the project had totally made a 98.57 percent progress and its geological model had been prepared, awaiting the finalization process.

The offshore Hengam gas field, which is shared with Oman, is located 20 km off Qeshm Island. With 150 million barrels of gas condensates, Hengam is of great capacity.

Iran and Oman have been discussing the joint development of the field since last summer.

The project’s drilling operations were completed last November, which included the drilling of six wells.

PEDCO is a subsidiary of NIOC which is active in the upstream sector of oil and gas projects in the Persian Gulf.