TEHRAN, May 17. /TASS/. Russia and Iran are currently discussing creating an electronic gas trading platform in southern Iran, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters.

"Discussions are underway to establish such electronic trading platform in southern Iran, including the use of Iranian gas, which will be produced and developed in collaboration with our Russian companies. This is not a quick process, we need to develop gas sources, attract partners, and other suppliers. We have an idea and it is being developed. However, bringing it into life takes time," 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.

In turn, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji noted that Russia and Iran discussed joint development of ten new oil and gas fields on the territory of the Islamic Republic. "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.