Russia is ready to invest $10 billion in projects in Iran
Minister of Energy of Iran Reza Ardakanian after a meeting with Russian counterpart Alexander Novak said in an interview with the IRNA news agency that Russia is ready to invest 10 billion dollars in the oil and gas industry of Iran.
Commenting on the talks with the co-chairmen of the Russian-Iranian permanent intergovernmental commission held on September 2 in Moscow, Ardakanian said that good results were achieved and a new round of negotiations with the Russian side on expanding cooperation in the energy sector to begin soon.
Iranian Minister of Energy announced that following the meeting with Alexander Novak an additional protocol to the agreement on the implementation of the Sirik thermal power plant (TPP) project on the Iranian territory was signed, and it should be implemented using Russian export load provided to Tehran. The amount of the loan is $1.2 billion.
"It is expected that work on the Sirik TPP will begin in the next two months, " said Ardakanian.
An agreement on the project was reached between the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani after the talks in November 2015 in Tehran. The Sirik TPP will consist of 4 power units with a total capacity of 1,400 MW.
In February 2017, Russia and Iran began construction of a 1.4 GW TPP in the city of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran. It is expected that the construction will take about 4.5 years.