Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 11 / Trend, A. Taghiyeva /
Egypt is not currently holding negotiations with Iran on the supply of Iranian oil to the country, Egypt's Ministry of Oil told Trend on Monday.
However, the possibility of talks between the two countries in the long term at the highest political levels wasn't excluded.
"Oil imports from Iran could be dangerous because of EU sanctions against the Iranian oil sector," the ministry noted.
Earlier, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi said that Iran is in talks regarding delivery of oil to Egypt. According to the minister, the emergence of new trading partner that will purchase significant volumes of crude oil will help Tehran to offset losses suffered due to embargo imposed by the European Union.
This statement from Ghasemi came after a visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Egypt within the XII Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which started on February 6 in the capital of Egypt, Cairo.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, participating in the summit, was the first head of Iran to visit Egypt after the severance of diplomatic relations between the two countries over 30 years ago.
The warming of relations between Cairo and Tehran became possible only after the revolution in Egypt, which ousted the regime of Hosni Mubarak. In August of last year, during a visit of Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi to the Iranian capital, a decision to resume diplomatic missions was made.
In 2012, oil exports from Iran amounted to nearly 1.1 million barrels per day. Also, oil production by the end of December last year amounted to 2.6 million barrels per day.