Iran is preparing to refine 100,000b/d of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) crude oil at the Tabriz and Raham refineries in Iran’s South Azerbaijan Province, with the aim of exporting an equal volume of oil with close technical specifications to international clients of the KRG at its southern ports, reported New China.

The Director of International Affairs Department at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Mohsen Ghamsari, said: “there are several options for selling KRG’s oil through Iran, but the only optimal way is swap operations,” according to Today.AZ. He added that KRG has requested Iran to help it export oil, but the deal hasn’t been reached yet and negotiations continue.

Currently, KRG exports its 500,000b/d of oil through Turkey. Yet, for several years, Iraq’s KRG and Iran have been in talks to construct a pipeline that would transport the northern Iraqi oil to Iran for swapping the region’s crude in the Persian Gulf. However, negotiations have lagged as the regional administration in northern Iraq instead focused on developing the alternate Turkey route.