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il and gas giant Pertamina is looking to Iran to boost production to support Indonesia’s increasingly high oil consumption.

On Monday, Pertamina signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) in Tehran, Iran, which allows the former to conduct a six-month study on two of Iran’s oil fields.

The two fields consist of the Ab-Teymour and the Mansouri fields, the latter of which consists of Asmari and Bangestan reservoirs. The two oil fields have a current production rate of 74,500 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and reserves of over 5 million barrels of oil.

After the six-month study of NIOC’s data on the two fields is over, Pertamina will be obliged to submit a preliminary proposal on how to develop the two onshore fields.

“Iran is one of Pertamina’s priorities. We are serious about investing in its upstream sector and will continue to support Iran in its efforts to increase production. On the other hand, [the MoU] is also part of our company’s efforts to support our national energy security,” Pertamina executive director Dwi Soetjipto said in a press release.

Pertamina has been eyeing Iran’s oil ever since international sanctions against the country were lifted in January, in exchange for disabling much of its nuclear infrastructure.

A recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows that Iran’s production has risen to 3.56 million bopd since then. The last time Iran achieved such crude-oil production was in November 2011. The new figure indicates that the world’s sixth-largest oil producer — coming in after Saudi Arabia, Russia, the US, China and Canada — is ready to move on from production stagnancy after being crippled by sanctions for years.

Apart from the development of Iran’s upstream sector, Pertamina has previously agreed to purchase 600,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from NIOC.

“There are still many opportunities for our two companies to work together. For example, in drilling and oil services, crude and condensate oil production, LNG refinery development, petrochemical sector and other activities,” Dwi said.

As Indonesia’s oil consumption keeps rising, Pertamina must find ways to fulfill domestic demand, which is estimated to reach 1.6 million bopd.

In the first half of the year, oil production increased by 11.3 percent to 305,000 bopd, boosted by its overseas oil fields in Algeria, Malaysia and Iraq, data from the state-owned company shows. Overseas fields produced 85,000 bopd in the January-June period.

The company also recently acquired a 24.5 percent stake in France’s second-biggest oil company Maurel & Prom (M&P) for US$200 million. Through the agreement, Pertamina will have the right to leverage around 6,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) produced by M&P, which carries out most of its business through the exploitation of onshore assets in three African countries: Gabon, Tanzania and Nigeria.

Pertamina will also receive 200,000 barrels of Premium, the brand name of subsidized gasoline, from Russia’s Rosneft Oil Company each month until December, making up a total of 1.2 million barrels of Premium.