Iran to cooperate with Beijing in new oil format
Deputy Petroleum Minister for international and commercial affairs expressed hope that Iran would continue cooperation with China's reputable companies in post-JCPOA era and within the new model framework of oil contracts.
Amir Hossein Zamani-nia said validity of Iran-China memorandum of understanding (MoU) is five years.
After signing MoU on Sunday afternoon with China's National Energy Organization, Zamani-nia told reporters the MoU was on sales of crude oil, gas condensates, exploration and development, increasing exploitation, manufacturing oil and gas equipment, investment in different oil and gas, refinery and petrochemical plans.
He added that Chinese companies were in Iran during imposed sanctions and expressed hope that in post Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) cooperation with Chinese reputable companies in the framework of new model of oil contracts could be continued.
Zamani-nia said that different Chinese companies were attending the meeting and expressed interest to participate in executing projects in different sectors of upstream and downstream of oil industry.
He said that a long term contract to sale 430,000 barrels crude oil to Chinese companies has been signed and in spite of that the Chinese firms are buying 600,000 barrels a day now.
The long term cooperation MoU was signed by Zamani-nia and Deputy Head of Chinese National Energy Organization Jang Yu Jing.
China is among traditional customers of Iran's crude oil, which its purchase increased following the implementation of the JCPOA by more than 13 percent.
Chinese companies of Sinopec and CNPC, who stayed in Iran during imposed sanctions, now after cancellation of sanctions want to have more colorful participation in Iran's market and both of them, which already were in upstream sector of oil industry, now expressed readiness to participate in downstream sector too.
China by importing around 400,000 barrels a day was the largest Iran oil purchaser during sanctions era.
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