IRAN, SOVIET UNION TO SWAP CRUDE, REFINED PRODUCTS
The Soviet Union has agreed to supply
Iran with refined oil products in exchange for 100,000 barrels
per day of crude, Iran's national news agency, IRNA, said.
    IRNA, monitored in Nicosia, quoted Oil Minister Gholamreza
Aqazadeh as saying on his return to Tehran from Moscow that the
agreement was part of a protocol on economic cooperation signed
during his visit. The amount of crude delivered to the Soviet
Union might double to 200,000 bpd later, he said.
    Aqazadeh said the two sides agreed to conduct feasibility
studies for a pipeline to take Iranian crude from fields in
southern Iran to the Black Sea through the Soviet Union.
    Iran is pursuing the pipeline project to protect part of
its oil exports from Iraqi air attacks in the Gulf.
    Irna made no mention of natural gas exports to the Soviet
Union, which Aqazadeh had said would be discussed before he
left for Moscow.
    Iran lost most of its refining capacity early in the Gulf
war and now imports several hundred thousand bpd of refined
products.
    Aqazadeh said Soviet refined products would be delivered at
the Caspian Sea ports of Anzali and Nowshahr, at Neka, near the
Caspian, and at Jolfa in north-west Iran.
 REUTER
