Iran, South Africa sign oil sale protocol
Iran and South Africa have signed an initial document for crude oil sales, pending the lifting of sanctions on Tehran for exports to resume, a senior Iranian oil official says.
South Africa relied on Iran as the biggest supplier of oil before sanctions on Tehran in 2012 dried up exports of about 380,000 barrels per day to the black continent’s second largest crude importer.
Director for international affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Mohsen Qamsari said Wednesday South Africa was ahead among the countries in negotiations to resume oil sales from Iran.
“An initial document was signed by the two sides but given that South Africa’s crude oil import terminals belong to international companies such as Shell, exports are not possible for now because of sanctions,” he said.
Qamsari said South Africa is most probably on course to receive the first shipments of Iranian crude oil after the sanctions are removed.
Energy Minister of South Africa Tina Joemat-Pettersson visited Tehran in April and discussed purchases of crude oil, oil products, gas, and petrochemicals from Iran as well as participation in the country’s energy projects.
Iran’s main crude oil clients are currently Turkey, Japan, South Korea, China and Indonesia which import around 1 million barrels per day as part of an interim nuclear deal between Tehran and the P5+1 dating back to November 2013.
The conclusion of the nuclear talks in July paves the way for the removal of all sanctions which would allow the country to return to pre-sanction export levels of around 2.3 million bpd.
Qamsari said Iran will stick to its traditional arrangement of 60% its oil sales to Asia after the sanctions are annulled. He said new oil contracts will be the same as those before the sanctions.
“Most of the countries which had contracts for the purchase of oil from Iran before, seek to resume those deals. Moreover, a number of new companies are ready to sign oil purchase contracts after the lifting of the sanctions.”
However, all insurance and banking sanctions against Iran are still in place, Qamsari.
“Even Switzerland whose parliament annulled oil sanctions against Iran is still implementing them,” he said.
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