Former Swiss ambassador to Iran, Livia Leu Agosti (L), has voiced her country’s willingness for boosting economic cooperation between Iranian and Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) portal reported.
She made the remarks in a meeting with the Chairman of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, Gholam-Hossein Shafei in Tehran on Monday.

Agosti who is the delegate of Switzerland’s Federal Council for Trade Agreements and Head of the Bilateral Economic Relations Division at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in the country’s Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, noted that even during the west imposed sanctions the two countries did not cut the ties and Switzerland sent certain commodities like medicine and food products to Iran.

In the meeting, Shafei for his part stressed the need for development of economic ties and removing the banking obstacles between the two countries.

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Despite the seven-year hiatus in oil swaps among Caspian Sea littoral states through Iran’s route, the process has not been resumed yet though negotiations are still underway with countries like Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan Republic.

Meanwhile on Thursday, a Swiss delegation comprising representatives of Vitol S.A. visited facilities and infrastructures of Neka Oil Terminal as Iran’s largest crude terminal in the Caspian Sea.

The visit aimed to resume oil swaps especially in view of the fact that the Swiss firm held cooperation with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) before the halt in crude swaps.

BP (British Petroleum) is yet another company looking forward to resumption of oil swaps between Caspian Sea stated and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Hamidreza Shahdoust, a local Iranian Oil Terminals Company (IOTC) official in the city of northern city of Neka, confirmed the visit of Vitol delegation to Neka Oil Terminal adding “experts at the oil trader giant Vitol made a visit to the Iranian terminal aiming to resume oil swaps.”

The official estimated that oil swaps will be resumed from Neka terminal within the next 7 to 14 days as all facilities at the Iranian terminal are prepared for the mission.

“Neka Oil Terminal enjoys a total storage capacity of 120 thousand barrels per day in its 12 tanks,” underlined Shahdoust maintaining “moreover, the project to increase oil swap capacity to 2.5 million barrels per day has kicked off.”

Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, while pointing to Iran’s readiness for oil swap with Russia, had earlier noted “the Russian side has also voiced willingness for swapping a portion of its oil production through Iran’s route and relevant negotiations are underway.”

“The capacity exists for a maximum swap of 150 thousand oil barrels per day,” underlined Zanganeh stressing “the process would boost Iran’s market share since the replacement is delivered to customers in the Persian Gulf.”

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