Turkish energy firm Unit International A.Ş. has signed a $7 billion agreement with Russia's state-owned Zarubezhnet and Iran's Ghadir Investment Holding to drill for oil and natural gas in Iran, the company confirmed Tuesday.
In a statement, Unit International, which is owned by the former chairman of Turkish football club Galatasaray Ünal Aysal, said that it has struck a deal with its Russian and Iranian partners for drilling in three oil and a natural gas fields.
The oil fields were reported to have an estimated reserve of 10 billion barrels and will produce 100,000 barrels per day. The natural gas field, on the other hand, has an annual production capacity of 75 billion cubic meters. The consortium will also be allowed to carry out drilling projects in other regions of Iran, the statements said.
It also pointed out the fact that the natural gas extracted from the drilling will be equal to 1.5 times the 50 billion cubic meters of gas Turkey imports annually, and added that the reserves in this field alone were enough to meet Turkey's natural gas demands for the next 150 years.
Though the statement highlighted the importance of the partnership in regards to the region's energy security, it did not provide any information on the amount the parties will receive from the gas and oil sale, citing a confidentiality agreement.
The new partnership, which is the first trilateral investment agreement between an Iranian company and foreign partners, has been described as a milestone in the Iranian petrochemical industry.
Earlier in March, Unit International A.Ş. began making energy investments in Iran. It has reportedly agreed to build four natural gas cycle plants, with a total installed capacity of 5,000 megawatts, in the country.
In July, French oil giant Total signed a $5 billion agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in order to develop phase 11 of Iran's South Pars, the region's largest natural gas field.
Total announced that the agreement will be valid for 20 years and the company will be the operator, with a 50.1 percent stake in the project. China's state-owned oil and gas company CNPC and National Iranian Oil Co. subsidiary Petropars have, respectively, 30 percent and 19.9 percent stakes in the development project of phase 11 of the South Pars oil field.