Lawmaker Insists Iran Must Keep Its Oil Trade Secret

Iran has been selling more oil and repatriating some of the money while it also conducts barter trade, a member of parliament’s energy committee has said.

Fereydoun Abbasi, who is also the former head of Iran’s nuclear agency, told a local news website that he believes in what oil minister Javad Owji says about more oil exports since 2021, but details should remain secret because of US sanctions.

Iran’s daily oil shipments fell to around 200,000 barrels, down from over 2 million when the United States withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear deal in 2018 and imposed oil export and banking sanctions. However, as the Biden administration began talks in early 2021 to revive the agreement, Iran’s oil exports began to increase, possibly due to less sanctions’ enforcement by Washington.

Although daily exports are said to have increased to 1.5 million barrels, Iran’s financial and economic crisis continue, with its currency falling by around 30 percent this year. This signals that Tehran is offering large discounts to mainly small Chinese refineries that buy its oil and is unable to repatriate all the proceeds in hard currency, due to US banking sanctions. Iran’s financial system is virtually cut off from the international banking network.

Abbasi said that Iran needs to keep all trade data secret, but his reference to barter trade is another indication that Tehran receives goods instead of cash for at least a significant portion of oil sales.