Date: 08 Mar 2000
Time: 07:43:16
Remote Name: 156.29.145.175
Tue Mar 7 20:44:09 2000
Iran sees Kazakhstan oil swaps resuming soon.
03/07/2000 Reuters English News Service (C) Reuters Limited 2000.
ALMATY, March 7 (Reuters) - Iran expects to resume oil swaps with Kazakhstan as early as April as part of a drive to open up trade routes with ex-Soviet Central Asian states, an official at the National Iranian Oil Company said on Tuesday.
"We plan to restart oil swaps during the first half of April, if the final talks go according to plan," said Reza Majedi, NIOC's representative in Kazakhstan.
He told a news briefing that Iran would take 40,000 barrels of Kazakh crude per day delivered by ship to Iran 's Caspian coast which would pass through existing pipelines to northern refineries and be swapped for Iranian oil in the south.
Majedi said that quality problems, which have prevented the swap system from operating since 1997, had been resolved, and Iran would now take a blend of oil from three Kazakh fields which would suit Iranian refineries.
The three fields are Kalamkas, Kumkol and Tengiz, which is part-owned by U.S. firms Chevron and ExxonMobil .
Washington's trade sanctions against Iran would mean those companies could not deliver their oil under a swap system, although Kazakhstan, with a 25 percent stake, could.
Iran is further proposing a new pipeline from the Caspian Sea coast to Tehran with a capacity of 315,000 bpd along the same route as the existing link, allowing swap volumes with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to increase.
Turkmenistan is already swapping 20,000 bpd of oil with southern neighbour Iran .
The second part of Tehran's export strategy is to construct a new pipeline linking oilfields in Western Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan with Iran 's existing infrastructure, opening up another 500,000 bpd of export capacity.
Majedi said that the planned Caspian Pipeline Consortium from Kazakhstan's huge Tengiz deposit with Russia's Black Sea coast, due to come on stream next year, would not be enough to satisfy potential oil output increases in the region.
A new pipeline from Western Kazakhstan to Iran would cost an estimated $800 million, and several companies, including Total of France and Eni of Italy, have expressed interest in studying it further, Majedi said.
The third phase involves using Iran 's pipelines running to the southern coast to start direct exports from Central Asia as opposed to swaps as under the first two stages.
The total volume of Central Asian crude passing through Iran could exceed one million barrels per day if all three phases were implemented, Majeda added.