Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh says Tehran has proposed to swap hydrocarbon products with Russia. 

Zangeneh says the proposal has been raised during a meeting on Wednesday with the visiting Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak.

He says Iran, based a proposed swap mechanism, will receive natural gas, oil and oil products from Russia through its northern terminals and will sell equivalent volumes of the same products to Russia’s clients through its southern terminals.

Zangeneh has been quoted by the media as saying that the issue was a key topic in his discussions with Novak, and that both Iran and Russia have adequate facilities to proceed with this swap mechanism.

Iran had been using a similar mechanism with Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan for over a decade through which it would receive oil from the three Caspian states at its Neka terminal and would deliver equal amounts with similar specifications to their clients at its southern ports.

Iran would use the oil from the three countries in its northern refineries to satisfy domestic needs and would charge them $5 to $6 per barrel as swap fee.

The Caspian swap scheme was halted by Iran in 2010 when the former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013) was in office in what appeared to have been a result of disputes over the transit fee.

Nevertheless, Iran said in June 2015 that it had started the scheme again.