Tehran-Jakarta holding talks on oil export to Indonesia

Tehran, Dec 15, IRNA – Manager of International Relations of the National Iranian Oil Company said preliminary talks have been held for oil export to that country but the talks have not been finalized yet. Speaking to IRNA, Seyed Mohsen Qamsari further remarked that with regard to the export of Iran’s oil to Indonesia, there are technical problems but it should be examined whether refineries in that country are capable of absorbing Iran’s crude oil or not. Asked whether oil export to Indonesia was in violation of the sanctions, he replied Indonesia has no problem in receiving oil from Iran as it is among countries which can purchase oil from Iran under the status quo. Recently a senior Indonesian official announced readiness for import of oil from Iran and said his country will implement a plan according to which direct import of crude oil from the producers will be increased in the long term. The Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said announced that Joko Widodo, the new Indonesian President, has ordered the government to buy crude oil from direct production sources as much as possible. According to him, the presidential order is due to the difficulty of domestic oil production in a near future and that the country imports crude oil to increase reserves. Sudirman Said noted that the Indonesian government does not seek to be depended on the oil of certain countries and therefore will find more oil suppliers in the market. Meanwhile, Hassan Khosrojerdi, head of the Association of Oil, Gas, Petrochemical Exporters of Iran, had earlier announced participation of Iran, Indonesia and China for building 6 oil and gas condensate refineries in South Asia. He mentioned that talks were initiated with Chinese financers for supplying parts of the three billion dollar cost of the project. Indonesia has currently the capacity of refining one million barrels of oil per day which meets about two third of domestic demand. This means the country should import over 500 thousand barrels of fuel products on daily basis./end