TEHRAN- Some 280,000 barrels of crude oil were traded on Sunday, the first day of offering crude oil for export on Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX), just few days before new round of U.S. sanctions on petroleum sector take effect, Shana reported.

National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) started to sell crude oil at $74.85 per barrel in the international ring of IRENEX on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. in an attempt to beat U.S. sanctions and let private companies to export crude oil. Since Washington aims to cut Iran's oil sales, private Iranian companies can transparently buy and sell the crude through this market.

With the daily supply value of one million barrel per day, the market wrapped up by selling eight 35,000-barel-cargos of oil, the report said.

At IRENEX, the payment mechanism is 20 percent in the Iranian rial and the rest in hard currencies. That is the buyers have to initially pay 10 percent of the value of the contract in cash and in case their bidding is accepted they must pay another 10 percent also in cash. They will pay the rest in hard currencies and via offering bank guarantees from banks qualified by NIOC.

Price setting at IRENEX relies on the base price determined by NIOC according to global prices.

The next date of offering crude oil at IRENEX has not been announced yet.

HJ/MA