Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi is currently in China, an Iranian oil official said Tuesday, amid an oil-pricing dispute that has led to a sharp drop in Beijing's crude imports from the Islamic Republic.
Iran
's Oil
Minister Rostam Ghasemi is currently in
China
, an
Iranian oil official said Tuesday, amid an oil-pricing dispute that has led to
a sharp drop in
Beijing
's
crude imports from the Islamic Republic.
The official said the minister, who is set to return later Tuesday, was
accompanied by a large delegation and had been scheduled to meet Chinese oil
companies, but didn't have more details.
China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Co., known as Unipec, and
National Iranian Oil Co. have remained deadlocked over a new term supply
contract for crude oil and condensate this year. The dispute is commercial
rather than political.
Unipec had a term contract to purchase 220,000 barrels a day of crude and
60,000 barrels a day of condensate from NIOC in 2011, representing about half
of
China
's
overall crude imports from
Iran
of
about 560,000 barrels a day last year.
The lack of an agreement has resulted in January and February orders being skipped.
If an agreement isn't reached by mid-February, March orders could be affected
as well.
Liu Weimin, a spokesperson for
China
's
ministry of foreign affairs, said Tuesday at a daily press briefing that
China
's
normal economic and trade ties with
Iran
will
benefit both countries and their people, and that the trade shouldn't be
disturbed.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman was unavailable for comment on the oil
minister's visit late Tuesday.
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