Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.9
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Indonesia will not face any problem due to international sanctions against Iran, If decides to import crude oil from the Islamic Republic, a senior official with Iran's oil ministry said.
"If a company or a country such as Indonesia wants to start importing oil from Iran, it will not have to wait for sanctions to be lifted," Mohsen Ghamsari, director for International Affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company said, the Islamic Republic's Fars news agency reported Nov. 9.
Ghamsari made the remarks while reacting to Indonesian energy minister's recent statements saying his country is mulling crude import from Iran.
Indonesian media outlets quoted Sudirman Said, minister of energy and mineral resources as saying "the Indonesian government is planning to increase oil imports through direct purchase from producers and Iran is one of the options for this purpose."
Ghamsari said that Indonesia has not sent any official demand to the Islamic Republic for oil imports yet.
Earlier Naryanto Wagimin, acting director general for oil and gas at Indonesia's ministry of energy, said Iran plans to build oil refineries and supply crude oil to Indonesia.
"The Iranian government is looking for opportunities to develop refineries in Indonesia, where demand for oil is growing faster than the ability to secure hydrocarbons," Wagimin was cited as saying by the Jakarta Post newspaper.
In April, Hassan Khosrojerdi, head of Iran's Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters Union said the Islamic Republic plans to construct six oil refineries in Indonesia.
He said that Iran would build a heavy oil refinery there with the daily production capacity of 150,000 barrels of crude as well as five smaller refineries with daily production capacities of 30,000 to 50,000 barrels of condensates.
Late in January, Iranian and Indonesian officials, in a meeting in Jakarta, underlined the need for further expansion of mutual energy cooperation.
The export of Iran's crude oil to Indonesia and Iran's investment in refinery construction were among the topics discussed between the Iranian and Indonesian officials.
In recent years, the former member of OPEC-Indonesia has seen its crude oil consumption grow and reach around 1.6 million barrel per day (bpd), while its national output stands below 800,000 bpd.