International Shia News Agency

Iran, South Africa in fresh oil talks

SHAFAQNA – Iran and South Africa engage in negotiations over the export of Iranian crude oil to the African country.

Iran’s Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zangeneh and South Africa’s Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson met late on Tuesday and held talks on bilateral trade in the oil and gas sectors, SHANA reported.

The Iranian minister said afterwards that Tehran’s energy relations with Johannesburg will expand once anti-Iran sanctions are lifted, noting that both sides were keen on a boost in such trades.

South Africa for long was a traditional customer of Iranian oil and used to buy a daily volume of nearly 70,000 barrels of crude before the 2012 sanctions.

The sanctions were imposed on Iran at the beginning of 2012 by the US and EU claiming that there is a military aspect to Iran’s peaceful nuclear program; an allegation Iran categorically rejected.

The Islamic Republic and the P5+1 group of countries – the US, the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China – reached an interim agreement on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Geneva last November, which led to relative loosening of sanctions against Iran, paving the way for further cooperation in various economic fields, especially in energy sector, between Iran and other countries.

Following the Lausanne understanding Iran’s oil industry officials said international companies have voiced interest in taking up projects in the country’s oil industry.

 

Sources – Press TV

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