Russian shipyard wants to construct offshore platforms for Iran “for decades”
Cooperation is abundant. Russian shipyard Red Barricades is in talks with Iranian companies on joint construction of offshore platforms to drill for oil in the Persian Gulf, the shipyard’s director Alexander Ilyichev said. Speaking on the sidelines of a Russian-Iranian industrial exhibition, Ilyichev said the parties will sign a memorandum of understanding and after that discuss options to finance the project.
“The volumes are very big, the Iranians name number in the billions of dollars,” he said. “The construction cycle is planned not for one year, but for decades.”
Red Barricades shipyard, which participated in the construction of some of the facilities in the Caspian Sea operated by Lukoil (ticker: LKOH), is working with the Russian export agency Exiar to finance the project.
Ilyichev alos said the shipyard is studying the possibility of building tankers for the National Iranian Tanker Company, one of the world’s three largest tanker companies. The tankers would transport oil from Kazakhstan to Baku, as well as to the north of Iran.
Iran’s Naseem Bahr Kish acquires controlling stake in Solyanka port
Earlier this month, it was reported that Iranian company Naseem Bahr Kish, which specializes in moving both goods and passengers by sea, would purchase a controlling stake in the Solyanka port in the Astrakhan region of Russia.
Source: Google Maps Astrakhan region highlighted in red.
The port is a link in the transportation route for trade to central Asia, India, Iran, Georgia, Russia and Europe, making it an important staging point for commercial ships.
Head of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemyev said that the deal would amount to 750 million rubles ($10.7 million).
Russia may grant $5 billion loan to Iran
Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov also said today that Russia may grant a public loan to Iran worth $5 billion next year pending the implementation of the deal’s “formalities.”
“I think in case we manage to settle all formalities in the first quarter of 2016, [the loans] may be implemented next year,” said Manturov.
The loan is part of larger cooperation between Russia and Iran that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani announced in November, reports TASS.
“We plan to enliven industrial cooperation,” said Putin. The Russian president added that the two sides have selected 35 priority projects in the areas of energy, construction, sea terminals and railways to focus on as they expand their cooperation.
