OREANDA-NEWS. May 5, 2009. The Belarusian oil company Belorusneft and the private Iranian oil company Petropars Institute (PPI) have signed a contract for 3D seismic survey of the Band-e-Karkheh deposit in south Iran, the Belorusneft press service said.

The area to be surveyed is as large as 874 square kilometres. Around 20 specialists, who are employed by Belorusneft’s field seismic survey division, will participate in the project.

Petropars Institute is the fourth partner of the Belarusian oil industry in Iran. Since 2007 the Belarusian-Iranian joint venture Belpars Petroleum Company Limited has been working in Iran. It performs geological prospecting of the Jofeyr oil field. Pilot operation of the oil field is supposed to start this year. The output of the explored strata is estimated at 25,000 barrels daily. An agreement has been made with the National Iranian Oil Company on handing over a new stratum at the Azadegan oil field to the Belarusian-Iranian joint venture.

Apart from that, in 2008 Belorusneft signed an agreement on cooperation in service, scientific and geophysical support for drilling oil wells in Iran with Sepanta International and a memorandum of understanding with Petroiran Development Company (PEDCO).

The manufacturing corporation Belorusneft was set up in 1966. It is part of the Belarusian petrochemical concern Belneftekhim. The company performs oil exploration, well drilling, extraction of oil and associated gas. Over the last two years the company has set up joint ventures in Russia, Venezuela, and Iran. The joint ventures offer complex solutions for exploring oil deposits. Apart from that, Belneftekhim is in talks with the Vietnamese corporation PetroVietnam about cooperation development in the oil industry.