Executive Director for International Affairs at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Seyed Mohsen Ghamsari outlined China as a traditional customer of Iranian crude saying “oil sales to Chinese firms was not halted even during sanction years and negotiations are underway over boosting crude oil sales and exports to the vast East Asian country.”
The official pointed to the inking of new accords with China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) over selling crude oil and gas condensate in the year 2016 asserting “accordingly, crude oil will be deployed to four or five subsidiaries of the Chinese firm.”
Referring to export volume of Iranian oil to China for the remaining part of the current year, Ghmasari underlined “the current export volume is more than 500 thousand barrels per day while the figure is likely to further escalate in 2016.”
He also touched upon shipment of gas condensate to China maintaining “the current export figure for gas condensate is insignificant and lands below 100 thousand barrels.”
Following a meeting with Deputy Head of China’s National Energy Administration Zhang Yuqing on Sunday, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh had said “China’s Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have been put in charge of developing the second phases of North Azadegan and Yadavaran oil fields within buyback contract.”
“Currently, more than 600 thousand barrels of Iranian crude is being exported to China,” Zanganeh had noted emphasizing “Chinese will make a 1.4-billion-dollar investment in renovating Abadan Refinery.”
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