TEHRAN, May 17. /TASS/. Russia and Iran discussed joint development of ten new oil and gas fields on the territory of the Islamic Republic, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji told reporters.

"We work with prominent Russian companies in the oil and gas industry. Certain contracts have been signed in the last two years. Our Russian partners are already developing some deposits. We now have ten more fields where we have opted to collaborate with our Russian partners and we talked about how we could work together with these fields," he said.

The minister added that Iran and Gazprom continue negotiations on joint projects in the country worth a total of $40 bln. "With such a large company as Gazprom, we have a memorandum of understanding worth $40 bln. Some of these agreements are already turning into real contracts. The negotiations for these projects are still continuing," he said.

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said earlier that Russia and Iran continue to discuss cooperation on six oil and two gas fields. In particular, Gazprom is considering joint development of the Kish and North Pars fields with Iran, followed by a project for liquefying gas and supplying it to world markets. "Our oil companies are considering six oil fields, and Gazprom is considering two fields: Kish and North Pars, for joint development with the Iranian side, followed by the implementation of a natural gas liquefaction project and supplies to world markets. Now, virtually all technical issues on this gas project have been settled. The evaluation of commercial conditions with Iran is currently underway," Novak said.