Iran has warned Japan it will look to China and Russia to jointly develop her giant Azadegan oil field an agreement with Japan can not be reached by September 15th.

Mehdi Bazaargan, Managing Director of Iranian developer Petroleum Engineering & Development Co., said this on August 27th.

Azadegan oil field in Southwestern Iran is one of the largest in the world and is estimated to hold at least 26 billion barrels of crude oil reserve. Japan and Iran signed an agreement on joint exploitation of this oil field in 2004, but no actual work has been done up until now.

Japanese energy sources experts expressed deep concern over the government's conflict between diplomacy and energy. An official from Japanese energy sources research institute said Japanese oil developer INPEX Corp had not started the project because of the land mines around the oil field. However Bazaargan claimed that it was clearly a pretext, adding that the work had almost been completed

The truth is that Japan is encountering a more knotty problem than land mines. Yao wenli, of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said, "on the one hand Japan's politics and diplomacy follow US to take high pressure policy on Iran, on the other hand, Japan hopes to exploit Iranian oil field taking into consideration diversity of energy sources.

A spokesman form US State Department said on March 23rd that the United States had expressed doubts about Japan's investment on Iran's oil because it violated American law and policy.

Japanese experts of energy sources are not satisfied with America's stand but have no choice except to delay the project. Iran outguesses that Japan is deliberately delaying the project in the face of pressure from the United States.

The Iranian developer, a subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Co., is in charge of negotiating with Japanese companies over the oil development project. The negotiation began in 2000 and Japan did not hold the oil concession until 2004. So Japan will not give up easily just because of warning from the United States.

By People's Daily Online