Baku, Azerbaijan, May 24 By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Russia and Kazakhstan have expressed readiness to resume crude oil swap with Iran, Pirouz Mousavi, the managing director of the Iranian Oil Terminals Company (IOTC), said. Mousavi also said that his company is fully prepared for resumption of crude oil swap, ILNA news agency reported May 24.
The IOTC will resume oil swap once the National Iranian oil Company (NIOC) makes decision on the issue, he said adding the IOTC has the capacity to swap 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Earlier, the head of the Department of International Affairs of the NIOC, Mohsen Ghamsari said, Iran is ready to resume oil swap operations with neighboring countries, following the lifting of international sanctions, however the former counterparts do not trust Tehran yet. In 2010, Iran stopped oil swaps with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
The Hague International Court of Justice fined Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO) of Iran $5.5 million due to stopping the swap of oil with its international partners. NICO is a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company and was tasked with crude oil swap operations. Under oil swap agreements, which started in 1997 and were in place for over 12 years, Iran received crude oil of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in the Neka port and delivered an equal volume to the clients of the same countries in Persian Gulf.
The total income received by Iran from these swap transactions from 1997 to 2009 amounted to about $880 million.