Iranian private sector halts crude oil exports
Dalga Khatinoglu
Although the Oil Ministry, the central bank and the private sector had come to terms on export of 20 percent of Iran's export-bound crude oil by the private sector in July 2012, eight months that have passed since reaching the trilateral agreement show that not only accomplishment of the outlined goals has failed, but also the private sector has suspended crude exports over the past two months.
On Tuesday, Mehr news agency quoted the chairman of the union of Iranian exporters of oil derivatives, Hassan Khosrojerdi, as saying that specific policies of some banks and also the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) have led to the cessation of crude oil exports by the private sector.
In order to counter the EU and U.S. sanctions on its oil sector and the Central Bank of Iran, Tehran announced that it will transfer 20 percent of crude oil exports to the private sector.
In early July 2012, the central bank and the Oil Ministry signed an agreement with the union of Iranian exporters of oil derivatives to entrust the private sector to export 400,000 to 500,000 barrels of crude per day.
The private sector should have exported up to 90 million barrels of oil to date, however, Khosrojerdi said, only 2 million barrels have been exported.
The head of the union said the banking system has not supported the private sector at all, adding that local banks do not issue letters of credit (LCs) for the private sector to export crude oil.
National Iranian Oil Company Managing Director Ahmad Qalebani said on February 6 that buying and selling crude oil is coupled with problems. He referred to depositing money to the central bank's account overseas as one of the problems facing the private sector. Procuring oil tankers and dealing with insurance and banking issues are the other problems, he noted.
On July 20, 2012, Reuters reported that Iran has stored up to 7 million barrels of crude oil at Egypt's Sidi Kerir Port and was ready to sell it at huge discount prices. According to the report, the sellers were unknown Iranian private companies.
Iran had announced that a consortium comprising 65 reputable Iranian private companies would handle 20 percent of crude oil exports. But, Mehr quoted Khosrojerdi as saying that selling crude oil to a broker overseas has created difficulties for the trusted private sector, and that the NIOC and the banking system are not in accord with each other.
Although Khosrojerdi did not name the broker, Khabaronline website on February 10 asked the NIOC's Qalebani about a person named Babak Zanjani, who is reported to be the broker that sold Iranian oil. In response, Qalebani said that selling oil to Zanjani had nothing to do with them. He added that the private sector received 320 to 330 orders for crude oil sale, but it exported just two consignments.
On February 11, an Iranian oil industry website quoted Oil Ministry officials as saying that the parliament's energy committee had questioned Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi over delivering oil to Zanjani. According to the report, the committee, chaired by Masoud Mirkazemi, has started investigating the issue of selling oil to Zanjani, who has reportedly not deposited tens of millions of petrodollars to the central bank account. According to Iranian media, Zanjani has established a bank in Malaysia with millions of dollars of capital and has been busy with brokering Iranian oil.