The Russian vertically integrated oil and gas company, Tatneft, and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a preliminary agreement to cooperate on the development of the Dehloran oil field which is located 120km from west of Dezful in western Iran, reported Sputnik News.

The agreement marks the first contract signed between NIOC and the Russian firm and it mainly deals with increasing recovery factor of the Dehloran oil field, according to Mehr News. The deal was signed by NIOC’s Managing Director, Ali Kardor, and  Tatneft’s CEO, Nail Ulfatovich Maganov.

Given the newly-signed agreement, the number of Russian companies active in Iran’s oil and gas industries has reached a total of three. Previous deals were sealed with Zarubezhnefta and Lukoil companies.

Earlier, Egypt Oil&Gas wrote that Russia was considering to form a consortium to take up development projects in Iran’s oil and gas sectors with the participation of Russia’s biggest energy firms Lukoil, which had plans to invest in two oil fields located in Ahvaz in Iran’s southwestern province of Khouzestan, and Gazprom, which was in the process of  finalizing the text of its agreement with the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) on developing  a third gas field in the country.