“Our companies have a particular interest in specific fields. In general, we estimate that the potential of the deals in this area can be estimated at around $20 billion,” Novak said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel.

The Iranian delegation will arrive in Russia on March 27 to present terms of oil and gas contracts for Russian companies, Novak said following talks with Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.

“We agreed that on March 27, the Iranian delegation will arrive to present the Iranian oil contract. This will speed things up significantly,” he said.

Zanganeh said in November 2015 that Russia and Iran had agreed to cooperate on oil and gas swaps and were working out details.

Use of national currencies

Meanwhile, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told reporters on Tuesday that mutual settlements in natural currencies are intended to be discussed in Moscow with the Iranian party next week.

“We will continue next week in Moscow,” Shuvalov said responding to a question from TASS regarding progress in talks on mutual settlements in national currencies.

Shuvalov also did not rule out that the free trade zone agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and Iran may be initialed during President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Moscow in March.

“Negotiations on details of this agreement will be held in Moscow. We will do everything possible to reach the initialing procedure for this agreement by the time of Iranian president’s visit to Russia or we will agree upon main blocks of this agreement,” Shuvalov said.

Source:Iran Daily