TEHRAN- National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will offer two million barrels of heavy crude oil at Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX) on Tuesday, Shana reported.

The base price for this round of offering, which is the third round, is $59.59 per barrel.

NIOC could sell 1.085 million barrels of crude oil, both light and heavy, and also gas condensate through 17 offerings at Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX) during the past seven months since offering these products kicked off at Iranian stock market.

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 the 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.

NIOC offered light 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.

NIOC has so far offered light oil through 10 offerings at the IRENEX.

Offering gas condensate at IRENEX came after the successful offering of crude oil at this market. The product has been already offered at the IRENEX in five rounds. The first offering was done on February 13, which failed to attract customers.

And then the turn came to heavy crude. Offering heavy crude at IRENEX came after NIOC offered light crude at this stock market in eight round. 

Iranian National Oil Company sold 70,000 barrels of heavy crude oil at IRENEX for the first time on April 30. In the first round one million barrels of heavy crude was offered at a base price of $60.68.

Heavy crude offering has been held two times at IRENEX so far.

MA/MA