An official with the Iranian Oil Terminals Company (IOTC), Hamid Reza Shadoust, said Iran can swap up to 120,000 b/d of crude oil, which can be enhanced to over 1.5 mb/d in the future, with its northern neighbors at North Oil Terminal, Vestnik Kavkaza Daily reported.

Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs, Amir Hossein Zamaninia, said: “No swap is taking place at the present time though talks are in progress with Caspian Sea littoral states like Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia to resume crude oil swap.”

Under oil swap deals, which started in 1997, Iran received crude oil from  Caspian Sea littoral countries through its North (Shomal) Oil Terminal  for storage, delivery, and crude refinery across Iran, according to Azernews.

The Islamic Republic stopped oil swap with Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan  in April 2010 after having swapped their oil for 13 years. The then NIOC officials noted that the measure was taken to prevent the country from becoming a buyer of Central Asian oil.