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.