The Iranian export of crude oil to Russia is to begin next month as per an agreement that will see Tehran paid half in goods and half in cash, the deputy oil minister for international affairs said.
“As per the terms of the contract, the National Iranian Oil Company will sell 100,000 barrels per day of crude oil to a state-owned Russian company and receive 50% of the exports value in goods and services, and the other half in euro payments,” Amirhossein Zamaninia was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
In addition to strengthening ties with Russia in the oil industry, the deal will help build closer bilateral relations in other sectors, Zamaninia noted without elaboration.
Dismissing speculations that Iran would receive food in exchange for its oil sales to Russia, the official said, “Crude supplies to Russia under an oil-for-food scheme are not true and such deals belong to the time of Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.”
Saudi Arabian daily Saudi Gazette cited Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying this week that Tehran and Moscow had signed an oil-for-food deal that will be implemented next month.
Zamaninia added that the two sides are finalizing some of the legal details of the contract.
Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Novak as saying that the amount of Iranian oil under the oil-for-goods agreement will be around 5 million tons a year, or around 100,000 barrels per day as announced previously.
In March, Novak said Russia was mulling over taking in 100,000 barrels per day of crude from Iran and selling the country $45 billion worth of goods.
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