Iran says Russian giant oil company Lukoil is not needed to participate in the first phase of Azar oilfield development plan, said Roknoddin Javadi, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
“There is no need for foreign companies, including Lukoil, to participate in the first phase of Azar oilfield development plan. They can participate in next development phases,” Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Javadi as saying Oct. 26.
Lukoil and NIOC have held negotiations about Lukoil’s resumption of a project to develop Iran’s Azar oilfield.
The Russian company and Norway’s Statoil started developing the oilfield in 2003 but pulled out in 2011 when the US and Europeans intensified sanctions on Iran.
Javadi said that the first phase of the development plan is underway by Iranian contractors with considerable progress.
Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and Lukoil Managing Director Vagit Yusifovich Alekperov met in Tehran Sept. 17.
Lukoil reopened its office in Tehran in April, with Alekperov saying his energy group would return to Iran as soon as the sanctions were lifted.
