MOSCOW, December 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Gazprom and Iran are interested in the further development of energy cooperation, the energy giant said on its website on Wednesday.

Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller and Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Hossein Noghrehkar Shirazi held a working meeting in Moscow on Wednesday, the Russian energy giant said in a statement.

The parties identified oil and gas deposit exploration and development - in particular the further development of the energy-rich Southern Pars deposit in Iran - as priority areas for cooperation. Both sides also discussed joint efforts in natural gas transportation, processing, use and marketing, the statement said.

Stages 2 and 3 of the Southern Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf were initiated by the international consortium of France's Total (a 40% stake), Malaysia's Petronas (30%) and Russia's Gazprom (30%) in 1997. The consortium built two offshore platforms with ten production wells each, two 100-km (62-mile)-long underwater gas pipelines and an onshore gas plant with annual capacity of 20 billion cubic meters of gas annually.

Iran's proven gas reserves total more than 28 trillion cubic meters. In 2006, Iran produced 105 billion cubic meters of gas.