Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 17
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Lukoil, Russia's second-largest oil producer is willing to launch crude oil swap with Iran, the Iranian oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, said.
The two sides are negotiating the issue, Zanganeh said, the oil ministry’s SHANA news agency reported Dec. 17.
The company’s vice president, Vladimir Nekrasov said in February 2016 that Lukoil will begin oil deliveries to Iran this year.
The amount of petroleum delivered may reach 2 million tons, depending on Iran’s needs, Nekrasov said, adding that in return the company expects to collect oil in the ports of the Persian Gulf to supply its refineries in Bulgaria, Romania and Sicily.
Elsewhere in his remarks Iran’s oil minister said that Russia’s Gazprom is also seeking to make arrangements for gas swap deal with Iran.
On Dec. 13 Gazprom signed memorandum of understanding with Iran over developing Cheshmeh Khosk and Changouleh fields.
Iran also has reached an agreement to sell 100,000 barrels of oil per day to Russia and a deal is expected to be signed in the coming days.
A half of oil value would be paid by importing Russian oil engineering, equipment, technology and service, according to Zanganeh.
Iran has already signed MoUs with Russian companies to develop Cheshmeh Khosh, Changouleh, West Paydar, Aban, Dehloran, Mansouri and Ab Teymour fields, which contains about 43 billion barrels of oil in-situ reserves.
All of the mentioned fields are among the 49 fields which Iran offered to foreigners based on the newly designed model contracts, called the Iran Petroleum Contract or IPC.
Iran needs $130 billion investment to develop 49 fields, of which 80 percent is expected to be attracted from foreign companies.