Iran awaiting for frozen oil debts
By Sara Rajabova
Iran’s economy and finance minister said the country hasn’t received the money from the crude oil sales due to the international sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear energy program.
Ali Tayyebnia said on April 23 the sanctions have left $7 billion of Iran’s money from crude oil sales stranded abroad, Press TV reported.
However, the minister gave no reasons for the situation.
Recently, another Iranian official said the country is waiting for the return of $18 billion worth in revenues from buyers of its oil products, with Greece, Indian, British and South Korean companies figuring top of the list.
Greek and Indian refiners have the highest amounts of debt to Iran, followed by Royal Dutch Shell, BP, and South Korean companies, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported.
Mohsen Ghamsari, director for international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company said the country has about $4 billion in unpaid oil money by international oil refiners.
Ghamsari said the oil debt is mainly related to Greek refiners and Shell, adding that smaller amounts of unpaid oil money should be settled by Asian refiners.
Earlier, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran’s petroleum minister said between $4-5 billion of NIOC’s money is blockaded in India. An Indian delegation will be reportedly visiting Tehran soon to find out a mechanism for the settlement of the dues.
Shell also owes Iran a total of $2.8 billion, which money will have to be cleared a day after the nuclear deal is reached, according to Zanganeh. Shell lost money trading Iranian crude in 2012 shortly before a European Union embargo.
Recently, the company has expressed readiness to resume its activity in Iran provisioning all sanctions will be removed.
BP is the second biggest gas debtor to Iran, with revenues from the Rhum field in the North Sea frozen in an account.
Iran’s assets abroad are frozen under the U.S.-led sanctions which prevent banks from processing transactions to the Islamic Republic.
Ghamsari said lifting banking and financial sanctions will pave the way for paying the total debt.
Petrochemical and polymer buyers in Asia also owe Iran several billion of dollars, Press TV quoted Ahmad Mahdavi, the secretary of the Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporations as saying.
He noted that despite an easing out of restrictions under the Geneva agreement of 2013 between P5+1 and Iran, Korean companies have not cleared their pending payments to Iranian companies yet.
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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
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