Tehran, YJC. To secure its Urals market in Europe, Russia has initiated talks with Iran to by oil from the country, proposing to Iran to launch a south-north reverse swap project.
Russia
has lately launched a pipeline called the "Friendhip” or "Druzhba” Pipeline to
have the world’s longest pipeline, conveying Russian crude to Europe.
To make
up for its old fields, the country has started to buy Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan
oil and mix it with its own to be able to sell it in Europe as Urals.
It
has also started negotiations with Iran, proposing the country to launch a
reverse swap pipeline to convey its southern oil to the Caspian Sea, so that Russian
tankers would be able to take it to nearby oil terminals.
Analysts
say that the proposal is motivated first by the favorable market Urals has
found in Europe, and second by the difference in price Urals has to Caspian Sea
crude.
Therefore
if Urals maintains its European market, it is expected that Russia will
increase its import from Caspian Sea countries.
On the
other side, if the traditional, strategic Mediterranean market is deprived of Iranian
crude for longer, due to Russia’s comprehensive programs to export more Urals
to Europe, Iran will be practically unable to retrieve the traditional market.