SHANA - Iran and Brazil are to enjoy banking relations within the next few months, a senior Iranian oil official says.

Amir Hossein Zamaninia, deputy petroleum minister for international affairs and trading, told Shana on the sidelines of a meeting between Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh and Brazil�s Minister of Mines and Energy Fernando Coelho Filho in Tehran on Monday, that Iran's central bank as well as a number of Iranian private banks have initiated talks with their Brazilian counterparts in order to establish banking ties which will be effective within the next few months.

He said Brazilian national oil company, Petrobras, has proposed to develop the oil layer of South Pars gas field and talks are under way between National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the Brazilian company.

"Talks have been held with this company over the project and Petrobras possesses the capabilities and technical savvy for developing South Pars' oil layers," he said.

He said besides Petrobras, Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, and Malaysian Petronas are also capable of developing the project in the offshore gas field that is share by Iran and Qatar in Persian Gulf waters.

The official further added that Petrobras is not currently in a position to directing invest in the project but will be able to do so in a matter of a few months.

Several Oil Deals Concluded by March 2018

Asked about NIOC's talks with international energy majors for signing deals, the official said the company will certainly have several contracts signed with various companies before the end of the current calendar year to March 20 2018.

"There are vast areas for cooperation between Iran and Brazil but because of a lack of much cooperation history between the two countries, it would be a bit difficult to prepare the preliminaries of cooperation in various sectors."

He further said a delegation from Iran's Central Bank as well as a number of private Iranian banks have initiated talks with their Brazilian opposite numbers to establish banking ties within the next few months.