January 15, 2010

The National Iranian Oil Company official website reports: “In an entirely unprofessional move, the purchase price for each liter of gasoline from Venezuela was announced at approximately $24 per liter.”

while the Iranian Ministry of Oil’s own bulletin reports the current pricing conditions of each tonnage of gasoline in the Persian Gulf market at $756 US.

Shana deleted this item from it’s website however hours after it was posted though the information is still available on the Venezuelan English-language newspaper, El Universal (below).

In October 2009, a member of the Islamic Parliament’s Energy Commission, Siroos Saazdar rejected all media reports that Tehran is to import fuel from the Latin American country at a high price and said: “According to the existing documents, Iran has yet to buy gasoline from Venezuela and there has just been an initial agreement between Iran and Venezuela in this regard.”

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Venezuelan English-language newspaper El Universal writes:

Energy
State-run oil company Pdvsa dispatched two shipments of gasoline to Iran even though Venezuela is importing more than 2 million barrels of products to supply its refineries.

According to a report by Efe news agency, President Hugo Chávez pledged, during his last visit to Iran, to sell 20,000 barrels of gasoline to the Asian country, to help avert the impact of likely United States sanctions on the Iranian economy, although the price offered by the Venezuelan government (USD 800 million) was higher than the market price, according to Iranian officials.

Venezuela imported in November last year 18 percent of the oil products and blends it uses to process gasoline or other derivatives. This percentage amounts to 2.6 million barrels of products per month, while 11.8 million barrels per month came from domestic production. These data were taken from a recent report on crude oil production by Juan Carlos Boué, a senior adviser of Venezuela’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum. The report published the certified figures of Venezuelan exports.

Iranian sectors have pointed out, according to Efe, that Venezuela will sell gasoline to Iran due to the fragility of the Iranian refining industry.

The economic committee of the Iranian Parliament hinted that the quality of fuel shipped by Venezuela was lower than expected.

The shipment is part of an offer that President Chávez is fulfilling to supply gasoline to Iran, although data with certified figures by the oil research firm Inspectorate show that imports of products in Venezuelan refineries are increasing.

Deisy Buitrago
EL UNIVERSAL

Compiled and translated from Persian to English by Planet Iran staff