Iran’s Energy Bourse to Open 4th Crude Sales in February

The organizers of the 4th National Iranian Oil Company's crude oil supply issued a statement on Tuesday, giving details on the procedures for the upcoming event.

The statement was released on the International Ring of Energy Stock Market (IRENEX).

The third installment was a major change over the previous two rounds as firstly, the prepayment dropped from 10% to 6%. Other changes in the third round of the supply of crude oil on the stock exchange included the possibility of settling 100% in rials. It means that, in addition to the mechanism for settlement (20% in rials and 80% in the currency), due to currency constraints, the full settlement in rials has also been created.

In the predicted payment mechanism, there is a possibility of cash and credit settlement, as well as buyers who are willing to pay a loan, the payback period increased from 60 days to 90 days in previous installments.

In the 4th round of the supply, as before, the volume of purchase is at least 35,000 barrels and the base price is set at 56 dollars and 24 cents per barrel.

According to the report, the supply of crude oil on the energy exchange of Iran in pursuit of the policies of the resistance economy based on the diversification of the methods of selling oil and the use of the capacities of the non-state sector for the export of crude oil was on the agenda.

In the first session of oil supply at IRENEX, back in late October, buyers were able to purchase as much as 280,000 barrels of Iran’s light oil at an average price of $74.85 in the first day of trading.

The second offering of crude oil on Iran Energy Exchange saw booming business as traders purchased all the 700,000 barrels of Iranian light crude on offer at $64.97 per barrel on November 11.

The move is considered to be one of Iran’s devised methods to dodge the pressures imposed by US President Donald Trump who has vowed to cut Iran’s oil revenues to zero.

On January 23, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani underlined the US failure in halting Iran's oil exports through sanctions, noting that Tehran enjoys good relations with its neighbors.

"The Americans wanted to zero our oil sales, but they did not succeed and failed," Larijani said, addressing a parliament commission meeting in Tehran 

In relevant remarks a day earlier, Iranian First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri announced that his country had devised special plans to foil the US plots to weaken Iran's economy through sanctions.

"Although the US sanctions have made the country's conditions somehow difficult, we have proudly announced that we can manage and plan for these hard conditions and live through all difficulties with the Iranian nation's vigilance and participation and we can move in a way that the US will not be able to attain its goals," Jahangiri said, addressing a ceremony in Tehran.

"We desire talks and logic in interactions with foreign states but the Iranian nation never allows to be addressed in the language force and contempt," he said.

Jahangiri referred to Iran's non-oil products, and said that the country ranks 10th in the world in production of steel and ranks 2nd after India in production of direct reduced iron (DRI), also called sponge iron.

Iran produced up to 16,640,000 tons of steel in the first 8 months of the current local calendar year (started on March 21, 2018), which shows an 18% increase in comparison with the corresponding period in last year.