Tehran, Colombo Hope to Resume Oil Trade
Iran’s Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh and Sri Lankan Minister of Petroleum Resources Development Chandima Weerakkody have met in Tehran and discussed resumption of Iran’s oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exports to Sri Lanka, as well as crude oil swap operations.
Referring to longtime friendship between Iran and Sri Lanka, Weerakkody said the removal of sanctions on Iran was good news for the Sri Lankans.
“Iran is an important name for Sri Lanka in terms of oil supply because the only refinery in this country has been built to process Iran’s light crude oil,” said the Sri Lankan minister.
Zangeneh said Iran used to export 40,000 b/d of oil to Sri Lanka before the sanctions were imposed in 2012. He expressed hope that Iran would resume its oil exports to Sri Lanka now that Tehran’s nuclear agreement with six world powers has been implemented.
Regarding Iran’s plan to resume crude oil swap with Sri Lanka, the minister said: “Iran has no problem for swap; therefore, the companies that are willing to be engaged in crude oil swap, can refer to Iran.” Iran has so far held talks with some companies for swap operations and Russian, Turkmen and Kazakh companies have shown strong willingness to that effect.
W.K.H. Wegapitiya, CEO of Laugfs Holdings Ltd., was also present in the meeting. He expressed satisfaction with the lifting of Iran sanctions, saying his country has had to buy LPG from Oman and Malaysia during years of Iran embargo. He said his country is now willing to resume and increase its LPG purchase from Iran.
According to Wegapitiya, Sri Lanka used to import 10,000 tons a month of LPG from Iran “but now they intend to bring this figure to 90,000 tons a month”.
Sri Lanka is currently purchasing crude oil and oil products from Oman, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Vietnam at higher prices, but has so far failed to find an alternative to Iran’s oil.
RIPI, IFP Ink MoU for Holding Studies on Energy Fields
Iran's Research Center of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) and France's IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for cooperation in 8 energy-related technological grounds.
Accordingly, the two sides have agreed to cooperate in upstream and downstream areas in petroleum industry in topics like study of reservoirs, enhanced oil recovery, gas sweetening and emission of pollutants.
From RIPI, Mohammad Reza Katouzian and from IFP, Didier Houssin signed the document at RIPI's headquarters in Tehran .
Addressing a ceremony to sign the deal, the IFP official said Iran and France will cooperate on study of enhanced oil recovery from Iranian fields.
"During the talks that we had, we concluded that the two sides have similar challenges in petroleum industry research and we hope such challenges will be solved by mutual interactions between the two sides," Didier Houssin said in the ceremony.
He said many of Iran's oil fields are complicated ones and IFP intends to close ranks with RIPI for locating EOR methods for boosting oil recovery from the fields.
"RIPI is seeking to enjoy the training programs offered by IFP," said Katouzian for his part at the ceremony.
Based on the deal, the two sides have agreed to cooperate in areas such as studies over fields and reservoirs, EOR, gas sweetening and environmental areas, he added.
Furthermore, IFP has agreed to cooperate with RIPI on studies over Yadavaran join oilfield.
He also said that the two sides are considering signature of several deals in the future.
Armenia to Treble Iran Gas Imports
Iran’s petroleum minister, Bijan Zangeneh, and Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Levon Yolyan have discussed Iran’s gas exports to Armenia, Iran’s gas transit via Armenia as well as electricity trade.
After the meeting in Tehran, Zangeneh said Iran has agreed to triple its gas exports to Armenia to reach 3 mcm/d in early 2018.
He also said that Tehran-Yerevan electricity trade has increased from 3 terawatts/hour to 3.2 terawatts/hour.
“Iran’s gas transit via Armenia was the most important issue discussed in this meeting,” said Zangeneh.
He said that following Iran’s request to transit gas to Georgia, Armenia has proposed the formation of a new organization.
“It was agreed that the gas purchasing side which has so far been Yerevan thermal power plant be replaced with this new organization,” he added.
Zangeneh said the future contracts for Iran’s direct gas sales to Armenia as well as gas transit via Armenia will be done through this organization.
“Expansion of relations with neighbors in the energy sector, particularly gas exports, is among Iran’s plans. Of course, Armenia is not a big consumer, but it can open a significant route for Iran’s gas exports. We were in agreement on this issue,” said the minister.
Armenia started importing gas from Iran in mid-2009. Tehran and Yerevan signed an agreement in August 2015 for the construction of the third electricity transmission line stretching from Armenia to Iran.
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