Under the terms of the agreement, the consortium made up of Tomen Corp, Inpex Corp and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co will have a total stake of around 75%.
According to US State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher, "We remain deeply concerned about deals such as this and disappointed that these things might go forward," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
"Washington [has] fundamental concerns about nuclear developments in Iran, its support for groups that oppose the Middle East peace process and Iran's harbouring of terrorists. The United States [has] consistently expressed its views on the subject and the government of Japan is quite aware of our views on this," added Boucher.
Azadegan is believed to be the world's fourth largest oil field with estimated reserves of around 26 billion barrels of oil. It is believed that Azadegan field can produce 150,000 barrels per by day by 2008 with that figure hitting 260,000 bpd by 2012.
