Zanganeh made the remarks at a meeting with the president of China's National Petroleum Company (CNPC), Chen Geng, on the sidelines of a conference dubbed "Opportunities for Iran-China Cooperation in the Energy Fields."

In the meeting, Zanganeh underlined the opportunities open for greater cooperation by the two countries, expressing hope that Tehran and Beijing can strengthen their mutual cooperation in oil, gas and petrochemical fields.

He also voiced Iran's readiness to cooperate with Chinese companies in oil-related activities in the Central Asian republics.

The CNPC president, for his part, said that Beijing supports mutual cooperation between Chinese and Iranian companies in the field of energy.

Chen Geng declared that CNPC was ready to participate in upstream and downstream oil projects in Iran as well as import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the country.

He also voiced the CNPC's desire to participate in international tenders for the development of Iran's oil and gas fields.

CNPC is China's biggest oil producer.

Earlier, on Wednesday, Iranian Ambassador to China Fereydoun Verdinejad said that a contract for a long-term purchase of Iranian liquefied natural gas (LNG) by China will be finalized during Zanganeh's stay in Beijing.

Joint ventures in Iran's oil-rich regions and China's downstream oil industry were among other issues discussed in the meeting between Zanganeh and Chinese energy officials.

Iran, China sign MoU over Yadavaran oil project

Iran and China on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to award the project to develop Yadavaran oil field to China's Sinopec.

Under the MoU, Sinopec has agreed in return to purchase an annual of 10 million tons of Iranian liquefied natural gas (LNG) over a period of 25 years.

Sinopec will be commissioned to prepare a master development plan (MDP) for Yadavaran in cooperation with "creditable" international oil corporations.

The MDP will be implemented through buy-back scheme once approved by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

Also, the NIOC has agreed to sell as much as 150,000 barrel per day (bpd) of crude oil to China over a period of 25 years once Yadavaran is in full swing.