The Malaysian company will develop resources at the two offshore fields as part of one or two joint venture partnerships if it decides to go ahead with the scheme.

The fields, discovered by NIOC earlier this century, are near each other and are about 180 kilometres south-east of the port city of Bushehr.

Bukhary is the latest of almost a dozen foreign companies to sign MoUs with NIOC for possible joint-venture development of oil and gas resources under new Iranian Petroleum Contract investment rules for foreign E&P companies.