Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged Gazprom executives to travel to Iran as soon as possible to discuss investing in Iranian gas and oil projects. The company's executives then went to Iran to hold negotiations, leading to the signing of the agreement in Tehran on the 19th.

Iran's National Iranian Oil Company and Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding worth about $40 billion on the 19th. The agreement was signed by the CEOs of both companies. On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tehran for meetings with the leaders of Iran and Turkey.

Iran's Shana news agency reported that Gazprom will help the National Iranian Oil Company develop the natural gas fields of Kish and North Pars, as well as six other fields. The Russian company will also be involved in building LNG projects and building gas export pipelines.

Iran has the world's second-largest gas reserves after Russia, but U.S. sanctions have hampered the country's access to technology and slowed the country's development of natural gas exports. Putin's visit to Tehran has been closely watched as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has reconfigured the global oil and gas market, pushing up prices, leading to higher living costs and rising consumer inflation.Editor/XingWentao