But Qalehbani made the point Saturday that Iran wants more money for engaging in oil swaps—which was the point that Deputy Oil Minister Hossain Noqrekar Shirazi made last June when he announced the suspension of oil swaps.
Qalehbani said that while Iran had not suspended oil swaps it would do just that unless it was paid $5 to $6 for each barrel of crude swapped.
Under the oil swap arrangements, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have each provided Iran with some crude oil that is refined in Iran’s northern refineries. Iran then sells an equal amount of its own crude in the Persian Gulf on the accounts of those countries.
One of the benefits for Iran is that it doesn’t have to build more pipelines to bring crude from the southern oilfields to northern Iran.
But in an interview with the Fars news agency, Qalehbani implied that oil swap sales were a pain. He said to continue them the Central Asian states delivering crude to Iran in the north would have to sell the oil Iran exchanges with it in the Persian Gulf and not expect Iran to handle the sales.
Shirazi said last summer that an average of 90,000 barrels per day was swapped the previous year. He said that within five years, the capacity will rise to 300,000 barrels per day.
The production companies that had the oil swap deals with Iran were Dragon Oil, Vitol, Select Energy and Caspian Oil Development.
Many in the Majlis operate on the assumption that slick foreigners routinely cheat and trick Iran and criticize almost every contract Iran has signed with foreign firms. However, the Iran Times has not seen any criticism of the swap deals.
For several years, Iran has boasted about the oil swaps as mutually beneficial. Shirazi last summer said only, “In oil swaps, national interests must be protected.” Qalehbani said Saturday, “Iran’s interests should be met in conducting swaps.”
The swaps began about a decade ago.