Russian energy minister leaving for visit to Iran.

TEHERAN, November 29 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Energy Minister Sergei
Shmatko arrives on a working visit in Teheran Saturday to attend a session
of the Russian-Iranian intergovernmental commission.
The press service of the Energy Ministry said the sides plan
discussing a full spectrum of trade and economic cooperation in the course
of the session, including the energy sector.
Sergei Shmatko is expected to meet with Foreign Minister Manouchehr
Mottaki, the Iranian co-chairman of the intergovernmental commission that
traditionally holds sessions once a year alternately in Moscow and Teheran.
Shmatko said Friday that he will discuss, among other things,
cooperation in the oil industry.
"We agreed on trade mechanisms and signed a memorandum with the
Iranian Oil Ministry this spring," he said. "I think the projects we made
arrangements on, including the ones pertaining to the Russian companies'
access to Iranian oilfields will be discussed at a meeting of a workgroup
on oil."
He also said he hopes to discuss the engagement of Gazprom's oil
industry branch, Gazprom Neft, in new projects on Iran's territory.
As part of these proposals, the two sides may consider development of
deposits in the Iranian sector of the Caspian shelf.
The agenda of discussions also includes Gazprom's efforts in
developing the Southern Pars deposit and the Anaran oilfield.
One more issue the sides will look at is the progress of construction
works at the Bushehr nuclear facility. Shmatko is going to visit the
construction site.
He said earlier that the N-plant, which is being built by the Russian
company Atomstroiexport, will not come on stream before the yearend, as
the initial schedule of works did not envision this.
Shmatko underlined the absence of any political pretexts for the
commissioning of the plant, saying it depends entirely on technological
conditions.
In the meantime, Ali Akbar Salehi, the director of the Atomic Energy
Organization of Iran said the loading of nuclear fuel into the Bushehr
reactor is due to begin within the next few months.
He indicated that Iran has firm agreements with Russia on the
construction of the N-plant and works there proceed ahead of schedule at
the moment.
Officials at the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom give
assurances that the physical start-up of the nuclear reactor will begin
"closer to the Iranian New Year", or in March 2010.
At this moment, adjustment and commissioning works are in full swing
at the plant, they said.
-0-kle