FNA- Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Morteza Sarmadi underlined the giant international oil firms' enthusiasm for cooperation with Tehran, and said the country is finalizing negotiations with them.

"At present, negotiations with the world's oil companies are progressing well and are in final stages," Sarmadi said on Wednesday.

Noting that the world's big industrial countries are eager to be present in Iran's oil industry, he said, "No one is willing to lose this opportunity and Iran has also provided the ground for all companies' presence."

Sarmadi stressed that many governments are also trying to settle their companies' problems for cooperation with Iran without concern.

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in January approved qualification of several international exploration and production (E&P) companies for participating in oil and gas tenders.

"The NIOC is to run several rounds of tender for a group of Iranian oil and gas E&P projects; to this end, it has invited competent and qualified foreign E&P companies to fill up qualification assessment lists," the NIOC's website said.

NIOC endorsed qualification of 29 foreign E&P firms to enter partnership with Iran under new oil contracts.

Also in the same month, NIOC's Deputy Managing Director Gholamreza Manouchehri underlined that several oil firms have shown interest to cooperate with each other in the development of the strategic Yadavarn and Azadegan oilfields.

"The Chinese firms, France�s Total and UK�s Shell are eager to develop West Karoun joint oilfields," Manouchehri said.