National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed an oil agreement with Thailand’s National Oil Company PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP), reported Mehr News Agency.

According to the deal, PTTEP will be assigned to perform studies on Iran’s Changuleh, Dalpari and Balal oil fields within six months. Afterwards the Iranian Oil Ministry would decide whether to award the project’s development to PTTEP or not, reported Trade Arabia.

The agreement was signed by the NIOC Deputy for Engineering and Development Affairs, Gholamreza Manouchehri, and Deputy Manager of PTTEP, Prapat Soponpongpipat oearly December.

NIOC’s Manouchehri stated during the signing ceremony that: “the study of these three oil fields have been passed over to other companies as well, and Thailand’s National Oil Company has been given six months to present the results of its investigations and proposed plans for the oil fields’ development to NIOC.” He added that PTTEP is active in 14 parts of the world. In addition it had cooperation with Iran in exploration for years.

Meanwhile, PTTEP’s Soponpongpipat stated that the agreement will lead to long-term and strategic cooperation with the NIOC. He commented: “We will employ all of our power in studying these fields,” he said, adding “we predict that this agreement will at least lead to the signing of a contract on one of these three oil fields for Thailand.”