Russian energy giant Gazprom GAZP.MM has signed a memorandum with the National Iranian Gas Company to supply Russian pipeline gas to Iran, it said on Wednesday. No details from the memorandum, which was signed during a visit by Gazprom's head Alexei Miller to Iran at a ceremony attended by Iran's interim president Mohammad Mokhber, were revealed.
Iran sits on the world's second-largest gas reserves after Russia, and Moscow has long sought to make inroads into its natural gas business. U.S. sanctions have hindered Iran's access to technology and slowed the development of its gas exports. Gazprom has seen its gas supplies to Europe, once the source of two-thirds of its gas sales revenue, plummeting to post-Soviet lows over the conflict in Ukraine. Last year it incurred losses of almost $7 billion, its first annual loss since 1999.
In July 2022 Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation with the National Iranian Oil Company worth around $40 billion, but no concrete deals have emerged from that agreement. Under its terms Gazprom was supposed to help NIOC develop the Kish and North Pars gas fields and six oil fields, and to become involved in the completion of liquefied natural gas projects and the construction of gas export pipelines.