Following Royal-Dutch Shell oil industry company, British Petroleum has also initiated negotiations with NIOC on purchasing crude oil.
Executive Director for International Affairs at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Seyed Mohsen Ghamsari has confirmed the talks with the British company saying “in case of reaching an agreement, crude will be sold to BP in order to supply one of its refineries in South Africa or in other parts of the world.”
Meanwhile, pointing to his recent meeting with the South African Minister of Energy Tina Joemat-Pettersson over oil prices, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh emphasized “currently, the main argument pertains to crude prices as Iran would only accept the competitive price of the market.”
In the current circumstances, the ownership of most South African refineries is held by world’s major oil companies like Chevron of US, Shell and BP which necessitates negotiations with these firms for crude sales to the African country.
BP remains as one of the debtors to Iran’s gas since the funds belonging to NIOC have been blocked at the direct order of the British government.
However, despite the imposition of sanctions against Iran by the White House and the European Union, BP had been allowed to run partnership with NIOC in Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field.
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