TEHRAN -- The new round of talks between Iranian Offshore Oil Company and a consortium of Indian oil firms for the development of Farzad B gas field will be conducted in Tehran next week, the IOOC managing director said here on Saturday.

The Mehr News Agency quoted Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh as saying that the Indian consortium has agreed to invest $4-5 billion in the first phase of the project to extract 1.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas from the gas field.
Farzad B block is situated in the Farsi block of the Persian Gulf.
The Indian consortium comprises the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) overseas unit ONGC Videsh, the Indian Oil Corporation, and the state-owned Oil India.
Zirakchianzadeh had said earlier that India’s ONGC has finished the master development plan for the Farzad B gas field.
Under the deal, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will have the marketing rights of the oil and gas.
The Indian consortium has suggested that the natural gas extracted from the Farzad B field be processed into liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be exported to India.
Iran has not yet exported any LNG, but it declared that it would be able to produce 77 million tons per year by 2014.
In 2006, Iran -- the world’s fourth largest oil exporter which also has the world’s largest gas reserves after Russia -- said ONGC Videsh had found oil in this block.
Iran is drawing interest from Indian and Chinese firms that are keen to tap one of the world’s largest reserves of oil and gas and are less susceptible than many other companies to Western pressure over Tehran’s nuclear program, according to Reuters.