Iranian Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian underlined the preparation of necessary grounds for the expansion of energy cooperation with Russia, and announced that the two countries are due to jointly build 8 thermal power plants in Iran.
"The grounds for cooperation between Iran and Russia for constructing thermal power plants worth over $10bln are provided and we have planned for partnership in building 8 new thermal power plants with the capacity of (generating) 2,800MW (of electricity)," Chitchian said in a meeting with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak in Tehran on Tuesday.
"Four units of these power plants will be built in Bandar Abbas city, two units in Tabas city and two units in the new city of Sahand, and the construction of two power plants in Tabriz city is still in the stage of environmental studies," he added.
During the meeting, Novak, referred to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) inked in August for increasing economic cooperation between Iran and Russia, and announced Moscow's readiness to hold complementary negotiations with Tehran to build power plants in Iran to generate 3,000MW of electricity.
Novak is in Tehran leading an economic delegation to attend the 11th meeting of Iran-Russia Trade Council.
The council is to discuss energy, transportation, banking, industry and mining, agriculture and insurance.
Iran-Russia trade currently totals $5bln a year, but economists say the two countries can multiple the volume of their trade exchanges.
Iran and Russia are expected to sign an agreement to strengthen economic cooperation, a deputy oil minister said yesterday.
Ali Majedi said the agreement is to be signed by Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and Novak on Tuesday.
Zanganeh said recently that Tehran-Moscow economic cooperation faced no restrictions.
“There are no restrictions for Iran in cooperating with Russia in different economic sectors,” he said.