Iran Voices Anger Over Delay in Caspian's Legal System
"We cannot wait forever until the Caspian Sea legal status is resolved. Iran has considered a share for itself," Zangeneh told ISNA.
He said that Iran has signed oil prospecting contracts with Shell and Lasma.
Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are the five countries which have common borders with the Caspian Sea.
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly indicated that it will agree to an equitable sharing of the oil-rich Caspian Sea which would give it a share of 20 percent.
Russia has inked a bilateral agreement with Azerbaijan on how to divide the Caspian, which is still in dispute 10 years after the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
Iran and the USSR were the sea's only littoral states before the Soviet breakup, and Tehran has repeatedly signaled its insistence on the previous accords being honored and its displeasure over Moscow's moves to alter them.
A reliable Iranian Foreign Ministry source said: "For now only the 1921 and 1940 agreements (between Iran and the ex-Soviet Union) apply, and no other arrangement outside those agreements is acceptable."
According to some estimates there are 200 billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cubic feet (18 trillion cubic meters) of gas reserves under the Caspian, the lion's share of which are held by Azerbaijan.
The Caspian Sea is estimated to contain the world's third largest reserves of oil and gas after the Persian Gulf and Siberia.
The Kremlin's special envoy for the Caspian, Viktor Kalyuzhny, said Monday that Iranian President Mohammad Khatami will visit Russia on March 19.
Khatami and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are likely to broach an agreement on how to divide the oil-rich Caspian Sea between the five littoral states.
Also, Russian special envoy on Caspian Sea affairs and Deputy Foreign Minister, Viktor Kalyuzhny, announced here Monday that Russian oil companies are eager to actively participate in oil projects and operations in Iran.
Kalyuzhny was speaking to reporters upon returning from a two-day visit to Iran during which he discussed grounds for wider Tehran-Moscow cooperation with senior Iranian officials.
Commenting on the Baku-Ceyhan oil project which is to transfer oil from the Azerbaijan Republic to Turkey, the Russian official said the project is not so economical.
He said the project is not in the interest of Russia either, adding that political considerations outweigh the economic advantages.
In a meeting in Tehran with Zangeneh on Sunday, Kalyuzhny supported Iran's stance in OPEC and called for more extensive cooperation between the two countries in the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors.
Zangeneh pointed to existing cooperation between Iran and Russia and expressed hope that given current experiences and potentials, both countries could further upgrade cooperation in the oil and economic sectors.
Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) forged ahead on Tuesday with plans for a hefty reduction in oil supplies, ignoring calls from Western petroleum importers for caution.
Leading cartel member Saudi Arabia appeared confident that the organization would agree to curtail production by just over five percent when ministers meet on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
"We expect a pro-rata reduction of 1.5 million barrels a day from February," Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters on his morning run in Vienna.
He was speaking the day after U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson finished a six-nation tour of Cartel members with nothing to show for his efforts to persuade the group to make only a modest supply cut.
Not only has OPEC rebuffed U.S. pleas, backed by the European Union, for supplies to be maintained to prevent another damaging upward spiral in energy costs.
Some producers, including Venezuela, Algeria, Indonesia and Qatar, will press for an even larger reduction of up to two million bpd. But Riyadh's position looks set to prevail.
"They've made their position plain. It would be a big surprise now if Saudi doesn't get its way," said Peter Gignoux at Brokers Schroder Salomon Smith Barney.
The expected reduction would bring official production limits for 10 OPEC members down to 25.2 million barrels daily.
Actual cuts are likely to prove closer to one million bpd because some countries now are unable to meet their quotas.