The Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) and a Norwegian-Austrian company have signed a preliminary agreement for the development of the offshore Efandiar field, IOOC Managing Director Saeed Hafezi says.

Japanese companies could return to a development project in the South Azadegan oilfield in southwest Iran, Kyodo News has quoted a senior official at the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum as saying.

An Iranian oil industry official says the country’s North Yaran oil field will start producing oil next year.