Iranian officials elaborated on grounds for cooperation with Spain and Austria after Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh on Monday discussed economic and energy ties with the envoys of the two countries in back-to-back meetings.
Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian said Iran and Spain can cooperate in building hydroelectric plants and Tehran can learn European experiences in water management and electricity generation from renewable sources, Shana reported.
With a population of around 47 million people, Spain meets more than 40% of its electricity demand via renewable resources, such as wind and solar.
Amirhossein Zamaninia, deputy oil minister for international affairs, said Austria’s oil and gas giant OMV is ready to boost extraction from Iran’s oil and gas fields after the lifting of sanctions.
OMV says by implementing enhanced oil recovery and improved oil recovery methods, it can help Iran maximize oil and gas recovery and double the extraction rate from oil and gas fields.
“Iran is mulling the possibility of raising oil exports to Spain to the pre-sanctions level of 200,000 barrels per day. However, there are currently no plans for supplying gas to Europe,” Zamaninia said.
“Neighboring countries are a priority for gas exports … This is politically and economically more viable.”
Spanish Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism Manuel Soria also underlined Spain as a leading country in water treatment industry and said Madrid is willing to share its technologies with Tehran.
“There is a huge potential for investment in Iran’s energy sector and we are ready to transfer our technologies in the fields of energy, water and fighting drought,” he noted.
Power production and distribution was also discussed by Iranian and Spanish officials.
A high-ranking delegation of around 70 businessmen from Spain’s oil, gas, renewables, engineering, industrial and infrastructure sectors arrived in Tehran on Monday to explore areas of cooperation. The Spanish mission is the fifth European delegation to arrive in Tehran after Iran and six world powers reached a historic deal on July 14 in Vienna, which would limit the country’s nuclear program in exchange for removing sanctions on its energy and financial industries.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani also praised the recent expansion of relations with the Europeans and said Iran and Spain possess tremendous potentials to expand ties in the energy, tourism, agriculture and rail transport fields.
