Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 27 / Trend S.Isayev/
Despite the fact that Iran's Central Bank has been hit with new wave of sanctions, some countries, with which Iran conducts oil trade operations, still use U.S. dollar to pay Iran. Singapore is one of these countries.
According to Singapore Petroleum Company, the country uses several currencies in case with Iran, which has vast reserves of natural resources, most notably oil and gas, and about 10 percent of the world's crude oil reserves.
"Mostly, we use U.S. dollar for transactions," a source in the company told Trend. "Another currency that sometimes is used is national Singapore dollar".
On Jan. 23, EU foreign ministers agreed on Iran's oil embargo banning EU countries from buying Iranian oil in six months.
When current oil contracts for Iran's oil expire, about 27 countries that make up the EU can not sign new ones. The new sanctions will also freeze some of the Iranian Central Bank's assets. Totally, Iran exports about 2.2 mbpd of oil.
Singapore is considered a major Asian oil trading centre, and the country has been importing about 2 percent of Iranian crude in 2011. Previously, Iran was Singapore's 30th largest trading partner in 2010 with total trade amounting to S$3.47 billion, up from S$2.87 billion in 2009.
Iran also was Singapore's 24th largest import market in 2007. Main import items were petroleum products refined, petroleum crude, hydrocarbons, fruit and nuts fresh dried and metal waste scrap excl. iron.
Imports have decreased by 27% from 2006 due to a drop in import of refined petroleum products, petroleum crude and hydrocarbon.
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