Iran's Acting Oil Minister Tours Russian Firm's Monitoring Center ahead of GECF Summit

Caretaker oil minister toured the production monitoring center of Russia's Zarubezhneft on Sunday during a trip to Moscow for a summit of gas-exporting countries, Iranian officials said. Hamid Bovard visited the center on the sidelines of the 8th Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Summit and the forum's 28th ministerial meeting, learning about the facility's capabilities and operations, the Shana news agency reported.

Welcoming the participation of Russian companies in development projects in Iran's oil industry, Bovard said Iran's national oil and gas companies have set up similar monitoring centers to track activities across the country. Sergey Kudryashov, Zarubezhneft's chief executive, briefed the minister on the company's operations, technical capacities and areas of potential cooperation with Iran's oil industry.

Kudryashov said the center was set up mainly to consolidate data from Zarubezhneft's onshore and offshore operations. He said production volumes for all wells and other production parameters can be viewed and analyzed there.

Bovard left for Moscow earlier Sunday to accompany President Masoud Pezeshkian at the summit and to attend the ministerial meeting. The 28th ministerial meeting of the forum is scheduled for Monday, a day before the leaders' summit. An extraordinary meeting of the forum's Executive Board, chaired by Ali-Mohammad Mousavi, Iran's deputy oil minister for international and commercial affairs, and a meeting of the high-level ad hoc committee were held Sunday. The sessions were to review and finalize key documents, including the summit's final communique. - Shana