New chapter with French Total to develop oilfields - Iran

TEHRAN, July 30 (KUNA) -- Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said a new chapter of cooperation with the French company Total will begin for developing the the Islamic Republic's oilfields.
His remarks, carried by the state news agency IRNA, came after meeting with visiting French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius late on Wednesday, as Zangeneh told reporters that Total has been involved in the development of Iran's oilfields since 20 years ago and the French were "interested" in expansion of cooperation in such development.
On French firms' keenness on presence in Iran's petrochemical industry, he said, "French petrochemical companies are among our old colleagues in petrochemical industries." Optimization of energy consumption, production of LNG and providing equipment were also among the topics discussed, Zanganeh said, adding that it was agreed that French companies hold talks with the Iranian private sector in the near future.
On his part, Fabius told reporters that good talks took place on oil and energy, hoping that they will bear good results.
On historic bilateral ties, he described today's meeting as "very effective." Fabius arrived in Tehran early Wednesday, making him the third senior European official visiting the Islamic Republic following German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini since the announcement of the nuclear deal with the P5+1 group. The deal was announced July 14.
Earlier, Fabius met with Minister of Road and Urban Development Abbas Akhundi, who said that Iran and France have started direct negotiations over purchase of new Airbus planes and their spare parts.
He told reporters that during a recent visit to France, both sides discussed various transport projects.
"We held satisfactory talks with the French Foreign Minister, which we hope can help the new approach in the bilateral relations." During his one-day visit, Fabius also met with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani.
Under the deal; signed in Vienna by Iran and the P5+1 UNSC permanent members (US, UK, France, Russia and China) plus Germany, Tehran will enjoy relaxed economic sanctions in return of eliminating its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98 percent, and reduce by about two-thirds the number of its centrifuges for at least 15 years.
Such openness could be sensed through the statement of Iranian Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, who said while meeting Fabius that Iran's strategy is "long-term cooperation and joint investment." Illustrating his country's human resources' potentials, Nematzadeh said Iran has a high engineering capacity, which enabled it to reach agreements with Volks Wagen, Daimler Benz and Japanese car makers, whose work will begin after removing sanctions.
On cooperation with French companies of Peugeot and Renault, Nematzadeh said the companies should prepare a framework for joint investment of 50-50 to produce new cars.
Fabius announced that French president has invited President Rouhani to pay a visit to Paris in November and said the visit will promote bilateral cooperation.
During his meeting with the head of the Iranian Department of Environment Masumeh Ebtekar, Fabius said that in December 2015, Paris will be hosting the International Conference on Climate Change with the aim to adopt action plans to be implemented by the governments to achieve the goals of sustainable environment.
In this regard, Ebtekar noted that Iran has suffered a great deal form climate change and sustained huge damages from dwindling water resources, high temperature and dust storms.
Iranian President Rouhani said during his reception of Fabius that the nuclear agreement is for the good of the Islamic Republic, as well as all countries in the region.
He added that Iran is determined to keep its pledges "provided that the other sides do the same." Rouhani noted that both Iran and France should help preserve the nuclear deal, which can serve as foundation for other mutual or multilateral agreements with Paris or other European countries.
Speaking at a joint press conference with counterpart Zarif earlier on Wednesday, Fabius said that the nuclear deal "is not merely a technical agreement," but it is for peace and stability in the region and the world at large.
Fabius also addressed the resumption of political, economic and security relations with Iran, saying bilateral ties were very good in these fields in the past. However, they are not so at present.
For his part, Zarif said the two countries could also broaden cooperation in the fields of narcotics' trafficking, pointing to the upcoming visit by a French economic delegation to Tehran in September, and reiterated that it would prepare the ground for more bilateral cooperation. (end) kt.hb