Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran has signed a one-year contract with Italy’s Eni to sell crude oil, Safar Ali Keramati, deputy director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for crude marketing and operations, said.
Under the deal Iran will sell 60,000-100,000 barrels of crude oil per day to the Italian firm starting from 2017, Keramati said, Mehr news agency reported Dec. 21.
He referred to the deal as Iran’s biggest crude oil sell to Italy.
Keramati said that 14.5 percent from total value of the exported crude will be used to clear the debts to Eni due to its investments in phases 1 and 2 of Darkhovein oil field development project.
He added that the remaining 85.5 percent will be paid to Iran in cash.
Mohsen Ghamsari, director of international affairs at NIOC, earlier said that Iran has started selling crude oil to Italy’s Eni in form of spot cargo.
Besides Eni, Iran has signed an oil export deal with Italian energy provider Saras.
The volume of crude which is sold to Italy’s Saras varies from 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 60,000 bpd.
Eni is also interested to participate in Iran’s oil sector projects.
Eni came to Iran in the early 2000s. The company was to develop Phase 3 of Darkhovein Oilfield in Khuzestan Province and Phase 19 of South Pars Gas Field, but halted operations due to sanctions.
Eni is active in exploration and production sector as well as downstream projects, including refining and marketing of petroleum products. It is one of the world's major oil and gas contractors in engineering, construction and drilling projects both offshore and onshore.