Iran’s Oil Ministry is expected to to sell three million more barrels of oil on the country’s stock market as early as next week, says Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.
“Heads of the three branches of power (Executive, Judiciary and Parliament) have authorised the Oil Ministry to offer three million barrels at the forex rate announced by the Central Bank of Iran’s online Sana system,” Zanganeh said, referring to the platform that records daily forex trade from across the domestic exchange bureaus.
The customers can buy Iran crude either in the national currency rial or any other foreign currency, according to the oil minister, cited by the Iranian media.
Earlier, the buyers, whose identities are kept anonymous, needed to pay 20% in rial and the remainig 80% had to be cleared in other currencies -mainly dollar or euro-, according to Shana website. All the dealings are carried out through Iran’s Energy Exchange (IRENEX).
However, it’s not yet known how much each barrel will be sold. The oil prices have been experiencing sharp decline in the past month although the OPEC agreed early December to cut production in a bid to keep the prices intact. At the time, Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, was trading at $63 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) stood at $53.69 a barrel.
On Thursday, Brent oil futures are trading at $54 per barrel while WTI is staning at $45.82 a berrel.
Zanganeh also stressed that those who bought oil at two previous occasions at the stock market have been able to sell the crude “without any difficulty”. “The buyers have exported the black gold and there’s been no problem,” highlighted the Iranian oil minister.
Tehran offered 1 million barrels on its Energy Exchange in the first round on 28 October but sold nearly 300,000 for the price of $74.85 per barrel. However, 700,000 barrels were sold at $64.97 the second time on November 11.
Iran decide to sell its oil via the stock market after Donald Trump took the US out of an international agreement about Iran’s nuclear programme. The other signatories -the EU, Russia and China as well as Iran-harshly criticised Washington’s move but have yet stayed in the pact. Trump’s administration later reimposed economic sanctions on Tehran on 5 November that target mainly oil and banking sectors.
Tehran says its crude is also being sought by foreign companies despite the unilateral US sanctions. “Several countries through their embassies in Iran have sought information on how to buy our crude that’s been offered on the Energy Exchange,” Iran Energy Exchange Managing Director, Seyed Ali Hosseini told the country’s official news agency IRNA on Monday.
“Several foreign companies have also held direct talks with [Iran’s Energy Exchange] and have been given transaction codes,” added the official. He did not provide further details, though.