Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 29
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran is keen to resume oil swap with its northern neighbors that was halted for the last four years, saying all parties will benefit from it.
The Islamic Republic was carrying out oil swap with the Caspian Sea and Central Asian states from 1997 to 2010.
Deputy head of Iranian Parliament's Energy Commission, Mohammad Saeed Ansari said that oil swap between Iran and the Islamic Republic's northern neighbors may be resumed in the future.
Iran does not have any economic or technical problem with the oil swap, Ansari told Trend Oct. 29.
Islamic Republic has the capacity to resume the oil swap, the MP said, adding all involving countries and companies will benefit from it. However he did not unveil any certain date for resuming the oil swap.
"It is not clear yet if the swap will be resumed or not," Ansari said.
While commenting about the swap fees, the MP said that those can be set after the negotiations start and the parties agree on swap resumption.
"Iran supports fair fees," Ansari said, explaining that, "considering the costs of swap for Iran, it is important that none of the trade parties face losses."
All sides should benefit the trade, he underlined.
Under the Islamic Republic's swap agreements with Central Asian producers Tehran was importing crude into Caspian ports and supplied the equivalent barrels on behalf of its partners in the Gulf.
Besides revenues, the oil swap project saved Iran the costs of carrying about 500,000 bpd of oil from south to north of the country to feed Tehran, Arak and Tabriz oil refineries.
In 2010, the daily swap of 70,000-90,000 barrels of oil between Iran and other Caspian states came to a halt by Iranian side. At that time, unofficial sources said Iran had decided to increase the swap fee from $1.1 to $5.5 per barrel.
The Islamic Republic swapped totally 254 million barrels of crude and got a sum of $880 million in transit premiums between 1997and 2009.
After President Hassan Rouhani took the office last year, Iran has repeatedly announced readiness for resuming oil swap. However the issue remains uncertain, while it is not clear the Iranian former partners will welcome Tehran's attempts.
Deputy Oil Minister Mansour Moazzami earlier said that Iran has lost its old swap markets.
"Iran's previous administration did not fulfill its obligations, so the costumers canceled the oil swap contracts and turned to other countries in order to meet their demands," he explained.
Early in June, former Director of the National Iranian Oil Company Ahmad Qalebani said
Tehran currently has the capacity to swap 500,000 barrels of oil each day. The country also plans to swap one million barrels of oil in the near future, he added.
Resuming oil swap could also play a vital role for Iran's sanction-hit economy.
Edited by CN