TEHRAN: Iran says it has sold its first cargoes of jet fuel to buyers from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Armenia through transactions at Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX). The announcement has been made by the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC). The company put the overall volume of the traded jet fuel – also known as known as aviation turbine kerosene (ATK) – at 4,000 tons. The value of the related transactions has been estimated at a total of Rials 7 billion ($230 million).
Amir Vakizadeh, the NIDC exports manager, has been quoted by the media as saying that the ATK sold to the clients will be supplied from Iran’s Arak refinery, adding that its base price was higher than the Free-On-Board (FOB) delivery rates for the Persian Gulf. Officials in Tehran said in May that Iran’s neighbors are negotiating with the country over the purchase of ATK.
They said Armenia and Afghanistan – that last year imported jet fuel from Iran – are also negotiating over new orders. New exports, he said, will take place before March 2017. They also emphasized that Tajikistan is negotiating over the purchase of the fuel. Esmail Hasham-Firooz, the director for export and import affairs of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), was quoted by the media at the time as saying that Iran exported 15,000 tons of jet fuel over the past Iranian calendar year of 1394 (ended 21 March 2016).
The figure, he added, shows a five-fold increase compared to the previous calendar year (ended 21 March 2015) when Afghanistan was the only importer. Hasham-Firooz also said that Iran has also been exporting the fuel to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but did not provide a breakdown of volumes. Iran joined the international club of jet fuel exporters in October 2015 after it began exporting the first supplies of the crucial fuel to Afghanistan and Armenia.
