SHANA-- The presence of international companies is beneficial to Iran as they can support the country technically and technologically, but the development process in West Karoun region would not be hindered by their exit from Iran and "would be continued seriously", a senior Iranian oil official says.

Speaking to Shana, Touraj Dehghani, CEO of the Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), said: "Development activities are ongoing in the South Azadegan field and we hope that by continuation of this process, we will witness an increase of at least 70,000 barrels of daily production capacity in the field by the end of this [calendar] year." The Iranian calendar year begins on March 21.

He said negotiations for the integrated development of Azadegan field and determination of the fate of Azar and Yaran fields are on the go under the newly-developed oil contract models, aka Iran Petroleum Contact (IPC).

Arguing that working with international companies does not downplay domestic capacities, and in the long run, can lead to the development of domestic potentialities by creating competitiveness, Mr. Dehghani, who took his post earlier this month, added: "Foreign companies are not keen on cutting back on cooperation with Iran, but the economy of their countries are indeed influenced by the US."

He also noted that the development of West Karoun oil fields was the top priority of the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, expressing optimism that PEDEC would be able to provide the required arraignments in order to realize the ministry's goals in the area.