Mohsen Khojastehmehr said on Tuesday, after the signing ceremony of the strategic cooperation memorandum between the National Iranian Oil Company and Russia’s Gazprom, emphasized that investments for the development of oil and gas fields will be made with the priority of joint fields, adding: “Based on the oil and gas production plans, it is predicted that in the horizon of the calendar year of 1408, with the investment of $160 billion, the daily oil production capacity will reach 5.7 million barrels and the gas production capacity will reach 1.5 billion cubic meters per day.”

He considered the realization of the country's economic growth as the approach of the 13th administration, and added: “Today, economic growth in the 13th administration is focused on investment in oil and gas fields, especially joint fields.”

The Deputy Petroleum Minister considered cooperation with big and well-known companies as one of the directions of the National Iranian Oil Company, and continued: “For this purpose, we have defined a part of the investment portfolio of the National Iranian Oil Company with a valuable and important share for Gazprom.”

Khojastehmehr said: “With active energy diplomacy and intensive negotiations with Russia and well-known companies, we will sign new memorandums and contracts. Likewise, two new contracts were signed with two important companies last year.”

He mentioned the continuation of negotiations since last year, and added: “In the last two months, an important meeting was held with Alexey Miller, CEO of Gazprom, and we reached an important understanding in this meeting.”

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and Russia's Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding worth roughly 40 billion dollars.

The document was signed during an online ceremony on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 by NIOC CEO Mohsen Khojastehmehr and Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee.

The development of Kish and North Pars gas fields, pressure enhancement of South Pars field, development of 6 oil fields, gas and product swap, completion of LNG projects, construction of gas export pipelines and other scientific and technological cooperation are among the most important highlights of the memorandum.

The relations between Iran and Russia under the 13th administration have been put on a new path with the support of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the two countries want to expand relations at all economic and political grounds.