Kazakhstan intends to resume oil swap with Iran
By Aynur Karimova
Recently Kazakhstan's Energy Minister Vladimir Shkolnik has voiced his country's intention to resume swap supplies of crude oil with Iran after the lifting of international sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear energy program.
The CEO of the Austrian VITOL GROUP company, Ian Taylor, believes that the resumption of swap supplies between the two countries depends on a number of conditions and will require a certain perdiod of time.
He said last week in Astana that Kazakhstan will have to wait for a complete abolition of international sanctions against Iran in order to press forward.
"We should be able to transfer money to Iranian bank accounts and receive them back from these accounts," the company CEO noted.
Taylor believes that the process of sanctions' removal will not be completed before the end of the first quarter of 2016.
He recalled that the VITOL GROUP Company has already swapped supplies of oil, and currently, the most important thing is to wait for the abolition of banking sanctions against Iran.
Iranian officials claim that after the lifting of sanctions, Iran is ready to resume oil swap operations with neighboring countries given the availability of the appropriate infrastructure.
In July 2015, local Kazakh media reported with reference to the Akimat (governor) of Kazakhstan's Mangystau region that Iran plans to restore swap oil supplies to Kazakhstan in the amount of 5 million tons per year.
Iran, prior to the introduction of sanctions, was an active participant of swap operations, which began in 1997 in the framework of contracts signed.
The total income received by Iran from these swap transactions from 1997 to 2009 amounted to about $880 million.
Kazakhstan began oil swaps with Iran in 2005 in the amount of 27,000 barrels per day. In 2006, this amount was increased to 82,000 barrels per day.
After receiving Central Asian oil in the port of Neka in the Caspian Sea, an Iranian oil terminal company transferred it to refineries in Tehran and Tabriz, sending the same amount of oil from Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf.
In 2010, Iran stopped oil swaps with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova
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