Børge Brende, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway, met and talked with Iran’s Economy Minister Ali Tayebnia on the sidelines of World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings 2016 in Washington DC.

An export credit line worth one million dollars has been allocated to Norwegian companies 400 million dollars of which have been used to export advanced technologies to Iran

“Norway encourages its companies, banks and monetary institutions to launch cooperation with Iran,” said Brende adding “DNB ASA, Norway’s largest financial services group, has plans to participate in the Iranian market and welcomes partnership in marine, fisheries, oil and gas sectors.”

The Norwegian official said Iran could make an excellent trade partner given its high stability and political security as well as the upward trend of its economic growth.

“An export credit line worth one million dollars has been allocated to Norwegian companies 400 million dollars of which have been used to export advanced technologies to Iran,” he continued.

Also at the meeting, Iran’s Tayebnia said “despite existence of great potentials for further cooperation, the current economic ties between the two sides are far from satisfactory.”

The official referred to Iran’s achievements in economic areas asserting “great progress has been made in oil sales and reaching agreements with other states though certain difficulties still persist over reinvigoration of ties with Europe which will hopefully be resolved in near future.”

He further enumerated possible venues for collaboration between Tehran and Oslo including oil, gas, fisheries as well as financial arenas.

“Norwegian firms previously had an effective presence in development of energy fields in Iran though their activities were almost suspended during cruel sanction years,” said Tayebnia.

He further called for signing of fundamental deals between the two countries like the agreement of avoidance of double taxation as well as customs and investment contracts.

“Initiating banking ties between Iranian and Norwegian banks would also facilitate escalation of bilateral economic ties,” concluded Iran’s economy minister.

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Iran’s Deputy Energy Minister Rahim Meidani touched upon details of cooperation between Iran and Russia over discovery of deep water resources in Iran saying “following the signing of a relevant agreement between the two countries, the Russian credit line has been opened recently.”

“A portion of the credit line, which has also been approved by the Iranian Parliament, will be used to launch discovery activities in deep waters of Iran with the participation of Russian companies.”

The official further noted that the discovery project is expected to be worth 250 million dollars asserting “studies have been launched to spot new resources in deep regions of Iran while geophysical studies will be done after identifying the country’s water potentials through surface geological mapping.”

Meidani underlined that the entire process for characterization studies and deep-water exploration is being carried out by local experts stressing “cooperation between Iran and Russia in the field of water exploration reservoirs returns is limited to geophysical activities.”

Deputy energy minister underscored that geophysical studies and drilling of wells in water exploration blocks will be performed with the 250-million-dollar credit line and participation of Russian companies; “studies need to be done with great caution and care since drilling of exploration wells in deep areas required a great amount of money on a yearly basis.”

“Given the Russian’s have provided the Iranian government with the $5-billion credit line, government will be in charge of repaying the resources,” he continued.

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