Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 16
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
South Africa has signed a protocol with Iran to buy crude oil, Mohsen Ghamsari, the head of the Department of International Affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said.
South Africa was the first country to start negotiations with Iran to buy crude oil following the Iran-P5+1 July nuclear accord, Ghamsari added. However, oil exports to the country is not possible currently due to international sanctions, he said, the oil ministry's official SHANA news agency reported Sept. 16.
"Despite the signed document, Pretoria cannot import crude oil from Iran for the time being because the country's oil import terminals are owned by international companies such as Shell."
But once the sanctions are lifted South Africa most likely will be the first country to buy Iran 's oil along with Tehran's traditional customers, Ghamsari added.
Pretoria was one of Iran 's traditional oil markets before the imposition of sanctions on the Islamic Republic due to its disputed nuclear program. Before sanctions cut down Iran's crude oil exports in June 2012, South Africa was buying on average 68,000 barrels of oil from Tehran per day.
Iran's traditional customers including Turkey, Japan, South Korea, China and Indonesia will remain Iran 's main crude oil buyers, the official said, adding some new refineries in these countries have also expressed interest in buying oil from Tehran.
Iran's oil export contracts in the post-sanction period will not be different form the former ones, Ghamsari underlined.
The contracts will be signed in short, mid and long-term periods, he added.
Asian markets will share 60 percent of Iran 's crude oil exports while 40 percent of Iran 's oil exports will go to the European markets, Ghamsari further said.
Iran, with 157 billion barrels, holds the world's fourth-largest proven crude oil reserves.
Edited by CN
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