Iran to resume Caspian oil swap shortly
Iran is about to resume oil swap after a gap of five years, importing crude into Caspian ports and supplying equivalent barrels on behalf of its partners in the Persian Gulf.
The arrangement will formally get back on track “in the next coming days” when an oil cargo arrives from a Caspian country, probably Kazakhstan, the Mehr news agency reported on Sunday.
The shipment is in line with a recent swap deal signed between the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and an international firm which the news agency did not name.
Mehr also quoted Chief Executive of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company Naser Sajjadi as saying that Iran planned to resume swap of oil products, primarily natural gas liquids, with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
The port of Neka in northern Iran has an import capacity for crude swaps with the Caspian states of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia.
Managing Director of the Iranian Oil Terminals Company Pirouz Mousavi said major repair of oil tanks and terminal installations has completed in time for the arrival of the cargoes.
The Caspian oil swap started in 1997 and was in place for more than 12 years.
Under the arrangement, Iran received crude from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in Neka for processing in its northern refineries and delivered an equivalent volume to the clients of those countries in the Persian Gulf.
The average daily swap was 90,000 barrels in 2009, which Iran planned to raise to 300,000 barrels per day by 2015.
Iran also charged the partners with a transit fee which totaled $880 million between 1997 and 2009, according to the local media.
Caspian producers suspended oil swaps in June 2010 after Tehran raised fees on operations to avoid an oil glut following lower sales of its own crude.
The government of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was basically opposed to Caspian oil swaps and Iran’s partners at the time accused Tehran of deliberately making the arrangement uneconomic.
The collapse of the Soviet Union has given Iran an opportunity to position itself as a major transit route for the Caspian energy. However, plans for building a pipeline to take the region's oil and gas to the Persian Gulf have been shelved amid US opposition.
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