Baku, Azerbaijan, April 11
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The riskiness of oil purchases and sales at Iran's energy exchange, as well as issues with export warranty and transportation, have led to a lack of oil sales at the Iranian energy exchange during the current Iranian year (started March 21, 2019), Ali Hosseini, Managing Director of Iran Energy Exchange, told IRNA, Trend reports.
According to Hosseini, the energy exchange and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) have created favorable conditions for oil customers to conduct sales and purchases – but these conditions can be further made optimal.
Touching on another reason for no oil sales taking place on April 9, Hosseini pointed out that it is still the beginning of the (Iranian) year and economic activities have not had enough time to intensify.
"Under normal conditions, crude oil is – considering its volume and value – regarded to be a risky product for sales or purchases," he said.
Hosseini added that although the price and payment were determined by the NIOC and Iran Energy Exchange, the banking and shipping sectors deal with the issuance of warranties and transportation.
He said that the sales and purchases at the energy exchange doubled last year (started March 21, 2018), in comparison to data from the preceding year.
On November 27, 2018, Iran put 1 million barrels of oil for sale at the energy exchange and sold 280,000 barrels at $74.85 per barrel.
On December 11, the remaining 700,000 barrels were sold at the energy exchange at $ 64.95 per barrel.
Following these two sales, despite the introduction of certain simplifying measures during the 3rd and 4th sales at the energy exchange (including the reduction of initial fee from 10 percent to 6 percent, extension of the maturity period after the handover of the purchased oil from 60 days to 90 days, transactions and calculations fully carried out in Iranian rials), oil was not sold at the energy exchange.
During the 5th sale on February 18, only 35,000 out of 1,000,000 barrels of oil were sold at $ 52.25 per barrel.
Iranian oil failed to sell at the energy exchange during the 6th sale on March 4, the 7th sale on March 18, and the 8th sale on April 9.