Baku, Azerbaijan, May 6
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: 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.
The firm said its trading division generated gross revenue of $481 million in 2012 on Iranian oil purchases and a net loss of $6 million. Condensate and fuel oil purchases from Iran generated gross revenue of $631 million and a net profit of $4 million, failing to compensate for the loss in crude.
"None of these purchases have been paid for, and all contracts were terminated and activities ceased before June 28, 2012," Shell said referring to the date when sanctions on Iranian oil came into force.
"Currently, we have approximately $2,336 million payable to, and $11 million receivable from the National Iranian Oil Company. We are unable to settle the payable position as a result of applicable sanctions," Shell said.
A number of veteran managers of the Iranian oil industry are members of the working group, but to date the two sides have not come to terms, an Iranian oil official told the Mehr News Agency on May 6.
Shell ceased upstream activities and suspended new business developments in Iran back in 2010. It has recently began the process of closing its representative office in Iran and terminating all activities.