Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh made the remarks on the sidelines of a meeting with the visiting South African Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson.
He said sales if crude and oil products were the main axis of talks with the African energy minister adding “Ms. Tina Joemat-Pettersson has travelled to Tehran mainly to provide grounds for the upcoming visit of Iran’s President to South Africa.”
“In addition to oil exports, talks were also held with the South African side over implementing Gas to Liquids (GTL) projects; “in recent years, disputes over gas prices have prevented GTL negotiations from yielding results.”
Zanganeh announced that a fresh round of talks will be launched between the two sides over carrying out GTL projects on Sunday adding “Iran is ready to deploy 100,000 barrels of crude oil to South Africa on a daily basis.”
The official went on to elaborate on Iran’s plan to purchase shares of South African refineries asserting “the purchase plan is aimed at guaranteeing long-term oil exports to the country.”
Iran's state oil companies like National Iranian Oil Company and National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company should not be involved in the deals, he said, adding that private sector, with the help of Iran's National Development Fund, could participate in the purchase of the refinery shares.
Iran’s conditions are not proper enough for making investments in new projects abroad, but purchasing shares can be put on the agenda, the minister said.
In response to a question whether difficulties faced by Iran for oil sales to South Africa pertained to activities of oil giants like Shell, BP or Chevron in the African state, Oil Minister Zanganeh said “in the current circumstances, Iran has no problem for marketing and sales of crude oil and the demand for Iranian crude is high in the market.”
He once more reiterated that Iran was ready to ship crude to South Africa underscoring that “decisions on oil purchase need to be taken by the African country’s government rather than foreign companies who are active there.”