Bosnia to Discuss Iran Oil Imports

Bosnia and Herzegovina is expected to hold a new round of negotiations to import oil and byproducts during the visit of Bosnian Chairman of Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic to Tehran at the head of an economic delegation that arrived late Monday.

According to Mehr News Agency, the diversification of oil export markets is a declared policy of the Iranian government in the post-sanctions era and Eastern Europe is a top emerging market.

Over the past nine months, Iran managed to expand crude exports to Hungary, Poland and Romania under spot contracts.

State-owned National Iranian Oil Company is said to have conducted talks with Russian oil and gas firm Zarubezhneft on oil sales to Bosnia, the news agency said. Zarubezhneft specializes in exploration, development and operation of oil and gas fields outside Russia.

According to Ali Kardor, NIOC’s managing director, Zarubezhneft owns a refinery in Bosnia and Iran can supply the refinery's total crude oil demand.

NIOC and Zarubezhneft signed a nondisclosure agreement in July as part of a deal that will allow the Russian company to conduct studies to develop two of Iran's joint oilfields with Iraq, namely Aban and West Paydar.

Tehran has prioritized the development of joint oilfields with Iraq. The Arab neighbor has shored up crude production from around 2.5 million barrels a day in 2011 to more than 4 million bpd, overtaking sanction-hit Iran as the second-largest producer of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

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In addition to the Balkan state, Tehran has held oil talks with other East European nations such as Belarus, Croatia, Serbia and Lithuania after the removal of sanctions.

Iran's nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, came into force in mid-January following a landmark agreement with six world powers in July 2015 on limiting Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Iran's October crude and condensate exports are set to hold near five-year highs in September, a source with knowledge of its preliminary tanker schedule told Reuters.

The No. 3 OPEC producer is producing around 4.5 million bpd of crude and ultra light oil condensate, according to local oil officials, while it has just about doubled its total exports.

This month, total exports to Europe are about 613,000 bpd, up from 481,000 bpd last month.

Under sanctions, oil exports fell to slightly more than 1 million bpd, as most shipments were made to traditional customers in Asia, namely China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey.