Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 17
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran is preparing to soon resume crude oil swap with Caspian states, director of Iran's North Oil Terminal, Hamid Reza Shahdoust, said.
Preparations began at Neka oil terminal for oil swap based on order of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Shahdoust said, IRNA news agency reported Aug. 17.
Talks were held with Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Russia and Kazakhstan on the issue, he said, adding more serious talks are underway with Kazakh side.
Shahdoust further said the country plans to increase the swap capacity with Caspian states from the current level of 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.5 million bpd.
Earlier, Pirouz Mousavi, the managing director of the Iranian Oil Terminals Company (IOTC), said Russia and Kazakhstan have expressed readiness to resume crude oil swap with Iran.
“The IOTC has the capacity to swap 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day,” Mousavi said.
Meanwhile, the head of the NIOC Department of International Affairs, Mohsen Ghamsari said previously that the former counterparts so far do not trust Tehran on oil swap. In 2010, Iran stopped oil swaps with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
The Hague International Court of Justice fined NICO of Iran $5.5 million due to stopping the swap of oil with its international partners. 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.