JNOC to join oil talks

JNOC to join oil talks

TOKYO (Nikkei): Japan National Oil Corp. plans to join Japanese firms Indonesian Petroleum Ltd. and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. in negotiations over developing oil fields in southern Iran, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Saturday morning edition.

The quasi-governmental body usually provides financial assistance at the drilling stage, but this time decided to participate at the negotiating stage because of the massive potential of these oil fields.

The Japanese oil industry obtained preferential negotiation rights to develop Iran's Azadegan region from President Mohammad Khatami when he visited Japan early last month.

The oil fields, located close to the Iraqi border, lie untouched, and are believed to hold deposits of 16-24 billion barrels.

JNOC, which is currently restructuring itself, will send engineers to join a joint exploration team to be assembled in the near future, and to shoulder some of the exploratory research costs.