Baku, Azerbaijan, May 9
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Shell, Greece, and Italy owe Iran $4 billion in petrodollars, said Mohsen Ghamsari, the director of the International Affairs Department at National Iranian Oil Company.
"For the time being, Iran does not have any oil debt to European countries. The last debt was related to Italy's Eni, but the debt was settled," Iran's Shana news agency quoted Ghamsari as saying May 9.
"Meanwhile, Shell, Greece, and Italy owe some $4 billion to us and have announced that the debt will be settled once the sanctions are lifted."
Iran's assets abroad are frozen under the U.S.-led sanctions, which prevent banks from processing transactions to the Islamic Republic.
Ghamsari said lifting banking and financial sanctions would pave the way for paying the total debt.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has tasked a working group with collecting $2.3 billion debt from Royal Dutch Shell.
Shell lost money trading Iranian crude in 2012 shortly before a European Union embargo and still owes $2.3 billion to Tehran for oil purchases.
Edited by CN