Iran, Russia finalising oil deal

Iran and Russia are in final stages of concluding a 20-bilion-dollar oil deal according to which Moscow can purchase 500,000 barrels of crude per day from Iran, media reports said. "We are waiting for agreement by both sides on the price of oil," Reuters quoted a Russian informed source as saying. The source noted that the value of contract will reach $20 billion and the oil consignment will be delivered in several stages. Iran-Russia trade currently totals $5 billion a year, but economists say they can at least quadruple the volume of their trade exchanges. Last month, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh announced that Tehran and Moscow are due to finalize an agreement on broader economic and trade cooperation. “The memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the broadening Tehran-Moscow cooperation will be finalized early next Iranian calendar year (will start on March 21),” Zanganeh said. The Iranian oil minister underlined that Iran is determined to raise the volume of its “economic transactions” with Russia within the framework of long-term deals. “The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is seriously determined to broaden its cooperation with Russia in the technical and technological sectors for the bilateral procurement of commodities and services,” Zanganeh said. Last month, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone conversation discussed bolstering and reinvigorating the two states' bilateral ties and cooperation in various spheres. During the phone conversation, the Iranian president praised Russia for its positive role in the nuclear negotiations within the Iran-powers? talks as one of the members of the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany), and said, “We will spend all-out efforts to further develop economic cooperation between the two countries.” “We should adopt measures to implement the already signed agreements as soon as possible and move through that phase into a phase of more important moves in the two counties’ relations,” President Rouhani said. President Putin, for his part, referred to the positive and constructive role played by Iran in the nuclear negotiations with the six world powers, and said, “We do all our best so that the Iranian nuclear issue would lead to positive a final result.” Putin also invited his Iranian counterpart to take part in the Caspian Sea Littoral Countries? Summit, which is scheduled to be held in Astrakhan in September, 2014. Iran and Russia enjoy special positions on the international scene and have long had constant and regular consultations on key regional and global issues.