International sanctions against Iran's banking system will not create a major hurdle on transferring money into the country by Russia’s state-owned oil company Zarubezhneft, which made a major oil deal with Iran last month, a senior official at the National Iranian Oil Company said.
According to Gholamreza Manouchehri, deputy for engineering and development at NIOC, a score of Russian banks, whose ties with Iran are still in place, can facilitate the deal's financial transactions, Mehr News Agency reported on Tuesday.
"The [Russian] company can also transfer its share through several European banks," he added, without elaborating further.
The official noted that NIOC is looking at the National Development Fund of Iran, the country's beleaguered sovereign-wealth fund, as well as several other banks as candidates to finance its share of the deal, standing at 20%.
Zarubezhneft signed a trilateral deal in mid-March with NIOC and Dana Energy Company for the development of Aban and West Paydar oilfields near Iran-Iraq borders.
Direct and indirect costs of the plan are estimated to stand at $674 million and $68 million respectively. Russians have an 80% stake in the new joint venture, while Dana holds 20%.
The 10-year agreement, which marks Iran’s second deal within the framework of Iran Petroleum Contracts, the country’s new model of contracts for oil and gas projects, is Iran’s first oil contract signed with a Russian firm.
The initiative is aimed at increasing the fields’ current output at 36,000 barrels per day to 48,000 bpd in the period. The plan envisages adding some 67 million barrels more to the two fields’ extraction within a 10-year period.
As per the agreement, the Zarubezhneft-Dana Energy consortium has been assigned not only to conduct technical surveys and maintenance, but also to equip wells with submersible pumps, oil separators and multi-phase flow meters in the first phase.
