Tehran, Iran, Oct. 20
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and Armenian Energy and Natural Resources Minister Yervand Zakharian held a meeting in Tehran on Oct. 20 to discuss possible ways to boost the two countries' relations in the oil sector.
Zakharian arrived in Tehran on October 19 for an official visit, Iran's SHANA News Agency reported on October 20.
The Armenian minister held a meeting with Iran's Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian on October 19.
"Iran and Armenia have good relations, especially in the energy sector," Chitchian said.
Iran bartered about 900 million cubic meters of its gas with 1.14 billion Kwh of Armenian electricity during the last Iranian fiscal year (ended on March 21), according to the official data, released by Iran's Energy and Oil Ministry. Iran doesn't export crude oil to Armenia.
IRNA reported on Oct.18 that Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan is expected to visit Tehran this week to discuss possible ways to increase bilateral trades, especially in the oil and gas sector.
The trade turnover between the two neighboring countries totaled USD 293 million in 2013.
Iran exported USD 198 million worth of goods to its northern neighbor in 2013 while Armenia sold USD 95 worth of commodities to the Islamic Republic.
Iran's total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels, with about 140 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Heavy and extra heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.