Italy’s Saras settles part of Iran debt

Italian oil refiner Saras says it has settled part of the debt it owes to Iran for crude oil bought before 2012 when sanctions were imposed on the Islamic Republic. 

The company has an outstanding debt of 250 million euros with Iran after paying 100 million euros in the second quarter of this year and the month of July, its Managing Director Dario Scaffardi said on Monday.

Scaffardi said he expected “a smooth payment over time” despite the hurdles which still exist on the banking front after the removal of sanctions on Iran in January.

Saras has been working to revive trade with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) which provided a significant part of the Italian refiner’s crude feedstock before the sanctions.

The refiner, which is partly owned by Russian oil giant Rosneft, took its first cargo of crude in June and was looking to “some interesting opportunities from this area in the future,” Scaffardi said.

Saras signed then a deal to take 60,000 to 65,000 barrels of oil per day of Iranian crude oil for one year. NIOC has also been in negotiations with Italy’s Eni for possible sales of about 100,000 bpd of oil, the Iranian company has said.

Italy has been seeking to relaunch its strong economic links with Iran which offers a crucial lease of life to the southern European country’s chronically sluggish economy, especially in the energy sector.

In April, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi led a delegation of some 60 business leaders on a landmark visit to Tehran where the two sides signed a number of deals worth billions of dollars.

Enel signed an MoU for cooperation in natural gas, liquefied natural gas and related infrastructure.

Italy's state-run lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti will offer credit lines of four billion euros to companies building oil-and-gas and transport infrastructure, while export agency SACE will guarantee those loans.

International business delegations have been visiting Iran, a country which promises massive trade opportunities in a variety of sectors.

Ukraine as new oil customer and transit route 

On Monday, Ukraine’s Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Igor Nasalyk met with Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zangeneh in Tehran, offering to transit Iran’s oil and gas to Europe.

According to Zangeneh, Iran has proposed to supply Ukraine’s need for oil “which, of course, is limited.”

“Ukraine’s oil refining capacity is small and the country is an importer of oil products,” the Iranian minister said.

The Ukrainian side, he said, was interested in transiting Iranian crude oil and gas to eastern Europe.

“We have to see whether such projects are economically and practically feasible for Iran to transit part of its oil to the Czech Republic and Slovakia through Ukraine,” Zangeneh said.

Ukraine, he said, has an advanced industry in the field of rotating equipment which could help Iranian companies with sourcing gas turbines and compressors. 

Gas sales to Georgia

Earlier this week, a senior energy official said Iran had sealed a small contract for sales of natural gas to Georgia.

According to Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) Alireza Kameli, the deal foresees exporting 40 million cubic meters of gas over a period of four months through Armenia.

The contract with the Georgian International Energy Corporation (GIEC) is on a trial basis and requires the authorization of the Armenian government to be finalized.

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