BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/12/2006

Belarusian oil firm Belarusneft studying possibility of developing oilfield in Iran

MINSK (Interfax) Belarusian state oil company Belarusneft is looking into the possibility of developing an oilfield in Iran, the company's deputy general director for geology Valery Beskopylny told Interfax.

"Iran has proposed we analyze an oilfield," he said. "We have partially studied them and selected the one seeming to be the most promising from our point of view.

"Iran has proposed Belarus develop the field on so-called repo-conditions," he said.

According to these conditions, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), the owner of the field, draws economic and engineering projects for the development of the field. The Belarusian company, which acts as the main contractor, should provide investment and guarantee the accomplishment of all prospecting and drilling works within the time span stipulated in a business plan.

"As a rule, the time span is about eight years," Beskopylny said.

Then, according to the contract, the main contractor either sells produced oil to the customer of works receiving revenues from the development and the production of the field, or receives property rights for the product, thus paying for the capital investment made.

Source:

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=12/23/2006&Cat=9&Num=017