Tehran, Baku to Resume Oil Swap after 5-Year Gap: Envoy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan said Tehran and Baku plan to resume oil swap after a hiatus of five years.
Oil swap between Tehran and Baku will get back on track soon, Mohsen Pak-Ayeen told Azerbaijan’s Trend news agency on Friday.
The move will help Azerbaijan further supply the global market with its crude, he added, saying that the two countries are holding talks on transit cost and route.
Under oil swap deals, which started in 1997, Iran received crude oil from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan through its North Oil Terminal on the Caspian coast and delivered an equivalent volume to the countries in the Persian Gulf. The procedure was suspended in 2010, on the grounds that the income from the swap was not sufficient for Iran.
Oil swaps, which stand for the exchange of raw materials to facilitate logistics operations, are expected to allow the Islamic Republic to optimize oil deliveries to refineries, located in the northern part of the country.