The Persian-language newspaper `Aftab-e Yazd' quoted Diamanti as saying that Eni had laid a capital of $1.2 billion dollars in Iran's major gas field of South Pars, as well as another $320 million in the onshore Darkhoein oil field. In June 2001, Eni announced it had signed an agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO) worth $1 billion for the development Darkhoein oil field in the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan. The contract - sealed under buyback schemes - will be reimbursed and paid back through the revenues generated by the oil produced by the field over a period of about 6 years. Eni will be the operator of the development phase with a stake of 60 percent, while the NIOC and its subsidiary NICO will implement the production phase by holding the remaining stake of 40 percent. Diamanti stressed that ENI has also entered a joint venture with France's Total to develop Doroud and Balal oil fields, stressing that ENI has invested as much as $360 million for implementing 45 percent of those projects. He said the stronger participation of different oil enterprises in the oil and gas development projects of the Islamic Republic over the past years had been "a major development" in Iran's oil sector. Still, he expressed regret that Iran's oil industry is suffering from lack of sufficient foreign capital as well as modern technology, stressing that these are the main problems of the industry in the Islamic Republic.