TEHRAN- National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) is going to set new guidelines for holding the 10th round of crude oil offering at Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX), IRNA reported.

After two unsuccessful offerings of light crude oil in the new Iranian calendar year (started on March 21), NIOC decided to halt the process to prepare new guidelines for the new fiscal year and then resume the offerings.

Accordingly, for the 10th round NIOC is going to offer two million barrels of light crude at the base price of $67.28 on May 21.

In the previous round, NIOC offered one million barrels of crude oil at the base price of $63.36. Like the previous rounds, the least amount of sales was 35,000 barrels.

NIOC offered crude oil at IRENEX first on October 28, 2018 just few days before new U.S. sanctions on Iran’s petroleum sector took effect (November 4). In the first round, NIOC could sell some 280,000 barrels of crude oil at $74.85 per barrel. With the daily supply amount of one million barrels, the market wrapped up by selling eight 35,000-barrel cargos of oil on the day.

Since the U.S.’s withdrew from Iran’s nuclear pact in May 2018, vowing to drive Iran's oil exports down to zero, the Islamic Republic has been taking various measures to counter U.S. actions and to keep its oil exports levels as high as possible.

One of the main strategies that Iran chose to execute to help its oil exports afloat has been trying new ways to diversify the mechanism of oil sales, one of which is offering oil at the country’s stock market.

EF/MA