Tehran, Oct 24 (IANS): Iran has signed a contract with Russia to export 40 homegrown gas turbines to the country.

Iran is now capable of meeting 85 per cent of its domestic needs for gas equipment and facilities, and its gas production has doubled despite the severe US sanctions, Shana news agency quoted Reza Noshadi, head of Iran Gas Engineering and Development Company, as saying.

Iran and Russia have in recent years expanded their cooperation in different areas.

In July, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding, according to which Russia is expected to invest about $40 billion in Iran's petroleum industry, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Shana's report.

In late July, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Ali Salehabadi announced that the Tehran Stock Exchange had launched the rial-ruble trading, official news agency IRNA reported.

About a month later, he said Tehran and Moscow will expand the use of national currencies in transactions to other areas of bilateral trade, semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

In late August, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia and Iran are finalising a comprehensive document on their cooperation.

"We are satisfied with the way our bilateral relations are developing. They are reaching a new qualitative level, which will be fixed in a large agreement between the two countries," Lavrov said at a joint briefing following his meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Moscow.