Iran says gold trade with Turkey to resume

 Reuters

* Gold trade seen less than last year
* Trade boomed in 2012 as Iranians bought gold
* More Turkish banks seen working with Iran (Adds quotes, Halkbank, background)

Gold trade between Turkey and Iran will resume, albeit at lower levels than last year, once sanctions on Iran are eased, Iran's ambassador to Turkey said on Friday.

Turkey's gold trade with Iran boomed in 2012 when Ankara was paying for its natural gas and oil imports with Turkish lira and Iranians were using those deposits held in Turkey's Halkbank to buy gold.

"Certainly the gold trade between Iran and Turkey will resume," the ambassador, Ali Reza Bigdeli, told reporters in the Turkish capital on Friday.

"Due to the problems in money transfers in 2012, the gold trade rose. I don't think that we are still in the same situation that would require us to trade in gold in those amounts," he said.

Some of the gold was held inside Turkey in the peak of the trade, while some was taken to Dubai by couriers to be sold for foreign currency which was much needed by Iran and to which it did not have access due to tight Western sanctions.

This trade had dried up as a provision of U.S. sanctions, made law in the summer of 2012 and implemented from Feb. 6, effectively tightened control on sales of precious metals to Iran and prevented Halkbank from processing oil payments by other countries back to Tehran.

"There are a lot of areas between Iran and Turkey that we could trade, we should revive those too," Bigdeli said.

He also said Halkbank will maintain an important role in relations between Ankara and Tehran and that other Turkish banks are expected to work with Iran as risks ease.

Source:  http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSL5N0JE1OR20131129?irpc=932

Turkey's pipe dreams

Arabian Business       Lionel Mok

Turkey has continued to make the headlines in the Middle East’s oil and gas industry over the last several months due to a number of factors which include the growing divide between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Federal Government of Iraq (FGI); and the recent signing of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeiline (TAP) and Trans-Anatolian Pipelines (TANAP).

Despite its unremarkable national oil production industry that produces, on average, 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) from reserves that total approximately 270 million barrels of oil, the country has made itself critical to the world’s energy market, while also managing to satisfy growing domestic consumption of over 700,000 bpd.

Turkey owes its gravitational pull in the energy market to its physical geography. As the only landmass standing between the Middle East and Europe, and also the Black and Mediterranean Seas, Turkey is well positioned to become an energy hub and a transit point.

The country is in proximity to 71.8% of the world’s proven gas reserves and 72.7% of the world’s proven oil reserves. It neighbors Iran, Iraq the recently discovered Eastern Mediterranean reserves near Lebanon; and it is less than 250 kilometers away from the Caspian Sea, home of the world’s largest oil discovery in the last thirty years.

By 2004, the Turkish straits of the Bosphorus and the Dardanalles, had the capacity to transit 3.4 million barrels of oil to European markets every day. At the same time, a terminal on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast at Ceyhan, facilitates oil exports from northern Iraq via a pipeline from Kirkuk and from Azerbaijan through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline is Turkey’s largest, with a capacity of 1.65 million bpd.

The planned TANAP will include a natural gas pipeline system running from the Georgia-Turkey border to the Turkey-Greece border, while the TAP, will transport the same natural gas from Greece via Albania and the Adriatic Sea to Italy and further to markets throughout Western Europe.

Turkey would struggle to cut Iran oil imports further: official

 Reuters

Turkey would struggle to cut its crude oil imports from Iran any further, a Turkish official said on Thursday, after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to tighten sanctions on the Islamic Republic by further slashing its oil exports.

"Turkey has already cut the amount of oil it buys from Iran as much as possible. A further cut after this would greatly stretch Turkey," the official said.

Turkey's sole refiner Tupras has cut Iranian oil imports by around 40 percent to 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) and raised purchases from Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iraq.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/01/usa-iran-sanctions-idUSL1N0G12L320130801

Iran's non-oil exports to reach $59 billion

Trend

Iran's non-oil exports will reach $59 billion in the current calendar year, which ends March 20, 2014, the Deputy Director of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, Kioumars Fathollah Kermanshahi said on Monday.
The announced figure is based on the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan, the IRNA News Agency quoted Kermanshahi as saying.
He went on to note that technical and engineering services will account for $18 billion of the mentioned amount.
According to the director of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, Hamid Safdel, Iran's total non-oil exports stood at $50 billion in the previous year.
Iran had non-oil trade with 196 countries in the mentioned period.
The country's balance of trade with 97 countries such the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Switzerland, turkey, and China was negative in previous year, the ISNA News Agency reported on March 6.
Tehran's balance was also positive with 99 countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Turkmenistan, and Pakistan.

Source: http://en.trend.az/capital/business/2148098.html

UAE to up oil output capacity

Arab News

The UAE is seeking to increase its production capacity to 3.5 million barrels per day of crude oil to contribute to the stability of global markets, UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al-Mazrouei said.

OPEC member UAE currently pumps about 2.6 million barrels per day. The country is the fifth largest oil producing country in the team, behind Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and Iran.

Al-Mazrouei said the rise would contribute to maintaining stability of global oil markets, but he did not disclose when they are going to increase the production.

"The recent events have proven that focusing on the security of energy is necessary in order to address natural disasters and geopolitical tensions as well as other unanticipated situations, which occur periodically in the world. That’s why the UAE undertook to construct an oil pipeline connecting Habshan-Fujairah to guarantee crude oil supplied to world market," he pointed out.

He was speaking at the opening session of the 21st Annual Middle East Petroleum and Gas conference, which began yesterday in Abu Dhabi.

Exports via Habshan-Fujairah route would allow the Gulf state to bypass the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has repeatedly threatened to close.

The minister added that some scenario stipulates that the global oil demand may increase by one million barrels a day until it reaches 105 million barrels a day by 2030, amid economic expansion in Asia and South America.

Turkey says joint energy projects with Greek Cyprus, Israel possible

Bülent Keneş      Todays' Zaman

Weary of a lingering political tension undermining potential large-scale energy deals in its surrounding region, Turkey sees it possible to cooperate with Greek Cyprus and Israel in joint energy projects in the Mediterranean “so long as the political atmosphere allows it,” Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız told a meeting in Baku on Monday.

 

The minister was speaking at a meeting with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) president on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Strategic Dialogue on the future of the South Caucasus and Central Asia that kicked off in Baku on Monday.

“In case of a possible remedy to political issues that remain a gridlock hindering further prosperity in our region, Turkey will be ready to take steps in order to ensure a lasting peace environment,” Yıldız said in a rare statement of what can be regarded as "extending an olive branch.”

Underlining that a recent Israeli apology to Ankara over the Mavi Marmara raid should not be seen as an excuse for future energy partnerships with this country, Yıldız told reporters: “But it is possible that a cooperation in energy between Turkey and Israel follow an anticipated rapprochement.” He said Turkey will then “not only warm to partnering in energy deals with Israel but also would like to see Greek Cyprus be involved here.”

The Turkey - Russia - Iran Nexus: Eurasian Power Dynamics

Stephen J. Flanagan      The Washington Quarterly

Complex and often contradictory interactions among Turkey, Russia, and Iran are shaping regional dynamics in the Middle East, Caucasus, and Central Asia. The nexus of the three pairs of relations are influencing each country’s dealings with the other two, as well as with the United States, and are whipsawed by events on the ground that continue to surprise leaders of these three historic rivals. Starkly differing policies toward the Syrian civil war and the Arab Awakening have strained Ankara’s previously cooperative relations with Moscow and Tehran.

Understanding these dynamics is essential to avoiding a wider war in the Middle East, renewed conflict in the Caucasus, and instability in Central Asia following the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan. Moreover, with the proxy war in Syria deepening and the prospect of Israeli military strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Middle East is reaching a tipping point unless the United States and the international community are able to work with these three powers to broker a political transition in Syria and a resolution of the Iranian nuclear crisis, which would otherwise have devastating consequences for regional stability and the global economy.

For Download full article please click here 


Source: The Washington Quarterly

Iran Beyond Oil?

Patrick Clawson*      The Washington Institute 

The image of Iran's economy as oil, carpets, and pistachios was always flawed, but has now become badly dated. The Islamic Republic is in the midst of a non-oil export boom -- it has the potential to remain a middle-income country even with no oil exports, and the reserves to finance the transition in the meantime. 

For years, Iran's leaders called for reduced reliance on oil but did little to meet that goal. Western sanctions have seemingly spurred them to action -- in his annual Nowruz address on March 21, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei acknowledged for the first time that restrictions on the country's oil exports had made a serious impact: "The sanctions have had an effect, which is because of an essential flaw that we are suffering from. The flaw that our economy is suffering from is that it is dependent on oil." He also acknowledged that Iran's "economic weakness" had led to "harsh conditions for certain groups of people." Rather than change Iranian nuclear policy, however, he argued, "We can turn every threat into an opportunity...The sanctions caused the massive domestic capacities of the Iranian nation to become activated."

TRADE BECOMING MORE BALANCED

While still important, oil is becoming a smaller part of Iran's trade. In 2012, the country imported $57 billion in goods and exported $34 billion in non-oil products, meaning that non-oil exports covered 60% of the import bill, compared to 24% in 2002 and 14% in 1992. It produced this shift in part by converting more of its oil into industrial products for export; according to the Iranian Customs Administration, the $29.2 billion in non-oil exports over the first eleven months of fiscal 2012/2013 included $9.0 billion in chemical products (mostly petrochemicals such as urea fertilizer and polyethylene) and $3.2 billion in plastics made from oil. But other products are also being exported at high rates, including $8.2 billion in minerals, stone, cement, and related products, $5.3 billion in agricultural products, and $800 million in carpets. The country's largest market is Iraq, which took $5.6 billion in goods over the same period, including much of Iran's manufactured exports (e.g., more than $300 million in automobiles). The next-largest customers were China ($4.8 billion), the United Arab Emirates ($3.9 billion), Afghanistan ($2.5 billion), India ($2.4 billion), and Turkey ($1.3 billion).

Iraq Energy Profile: Has Surpassed Iran In Producing Crude Oil – Analysis

EIA

Iraq has the fifth largest proven crude oil reserves in the world, and it passed Iran as the second largest producer of crude oil in OPEC at the end of 2012.

Iraq was the world’s eighth largest producer of total petroleum liquids in 2012, and it has the world’s fifth largest proven petroleum reserves after Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Canada, and Iran. Just a fraction of Iraq’s known fields are in development, and Iraq may be one of the few places left where much of its known hydrocarbon resources has not been fully exploited. Iraq’s energy sector is heavily based on oil. Over 90 percent of its energy needs are met with petroleum (2010 estimate), with the rest supplied by natural gas and hydropower.

Iraq has begun to develop its oil and natural gas reserves after years of sanctions and wars, but it will need to develop its infrastructure in order to reach its production potential. According to estimates by Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy, capital expenditures of $30 billion per year in Iraqi energy infrastructure are required to meet Iraq’s production targets. Progress has been hampered by political disputes and the lack of a law to govern development of Iraq’s oil and gas. The proposed Hydrocarbon Law, which would govern contracting and regulation, has been under review in the Council of Ministers since October 26, 2008, but has not received final passage.

Petroleum

Despite having large proven oil reserves, increases in oil production have fallen behind ambitious targets because of infrastructure constraints and political disputes.

Reserves

Iraq revised its estimate of proven oil reserves from 115 billion barrels in 2011 to 141 billion barrels as of January 1, 2013, according to the Oil and Gas Journal. Iraq’s resources are not evenly divided across sectarian-demographic lines. Most known hydrocarbon resources are concentrated in the Shiite areas of the south and the ethnically Kurdish region in the north, with few resources in control of the Sunni minority in central Iraq.

The majority of the known oil and gas reserves in Iraq form a belt that runs along the eastern edge of the country. Iraq has five super-giant fields (over 5 billion barrels) in the south that account for 60 percent of the country’s proven oil reserves. An estimated 17 percent of oil reserves are in the north of Iraq, near Kirkuk, Mosul, and Khanaqin. Control over rights to reserves is a source of controversy between the ethnic Kurds and other groups in the area. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) area contained 4 billion barrels of proven reserves. However, this region is now being actively explored, and the KRG stated that this region could contain 45 billion barrels of unproven oil resources.

The Saudi Oil War on Iran

Reza Sanati*        The National Interest

When Prince Turki al-Faisal suggested last year that the House of Saud would join in the U.S.-led sanctions against Iranian oil, by seeking to displace Tehran’s oil exports from the global economy, he was not referring to a novel idea. Indeed, Saudi Arabia has led two prior oil wars against Iran.

As detailed in Andrew Scott Cooper’s The Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran, and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East, the first Saudi oil war against Iran was intended to weaken the Shah’s modernization programs. The Saudis feared Iran’s rise as a regional power, and wanted to carve out space for independent decision-making in OPEC, which at the time was dominated by Iran.

As the Shah was extremely dependent on high oil prices for his ambitious goals, the Saudis grasped that dissipation of oil prices via increased global supply would be Iran’s Achilles’ heel. As Cooper chronicles, the Saudis ultimately convinced Washington to go along with their plans, facilitated by the U.S. domestic concern about high oil prices. Near the end of the Nixon administration, the Saudis started to flood the market.

These three energy pipelines could shake up geopolitics

Steve Le Vine        QUARTZ

Three of the most volatile parts of the Middle East—Iran, Iraq and Israel—are the scene of oil and gas initiatives that could shake up geopolitics there and beyond. The efforts center on three energy pipelines, at least two of which seem likely to be built.

The first is an attempt by Iran to supply Pakistan with natural gas. On March 11, Pakistani President Asif Zardari and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the construction of a new section of a proposed 1,200-mile pipeline connecting the two countries. Iran claims its own section of the line is almost finished, starting from the giant South Pars natural gas field—the world’s largest—and going to the border with Pakistan. The ceremony marked the start of construction of the 485-mile Pakistani leg. Iran is offering $500 million in finance toward the estimated $1.5 billion cost of the Pakistan portion, according to the Pakistanis.

If the pipeline is successful—the longest shot of the three considering Western-led sanctions against Iran—it will provide an economic jolt for gas-starved Pakistan. If the line is extended to India, it could also help to soften India-Pakistani friction, the underlying cause of South Asian instability. It also would create a new economic belt stretching from the Middle East to the depths of the subcontinent.

Iraq and Iran’s Oil Pipeline Politics

Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline Ceremony 11 March 2013. (Photo: Mian Khursheed)

 Elie Chalhoub    Al Akhbar English

Away from the region’s headlines and wars, plans are being methodically put in place that could redraw the strategic map of the Middle East, erasing one of the region’s key colonial-era features.

Recent moves by Iran and Iraq to press ahead with the construction of a series of new oil and gas export pipelines could be attributed to Iran’s bid to counter international sanctions. The planned pipelines could also reflect Iraq’s economic recovery or perhaps pressure from oil companies for new export routes.

There may be some truth to these explanations. But a closer look makes clear that these schemes are related.

The short-term aims are evident. They include trying to lure Jordan into the region’s “resistance” axis and reducing American influence on Iran’s eastern neighbor Pakistan.

But the long-term objective is more ambitious: to connect the Middle East by way of a web of economic ties that binds them into a regional partnership whose mainstays are Iran and Iraq.

Baghdad is making it increasingly clear where it stands in terms of its regional alignment. In recent months, it has openly supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus, clashed with Ankara, reached out to Cairo, and been at odds with Riyadh and Doha.

Turkey is economic winner of Iraq war

Daniel Dombey     Financial Times

ISTANBUL — The Americans won the war, the Iranians won the peace and the Turks won the contracts.

Turkey, which blocked the deployment of U.S. troops through its territory during the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, is emerging 10 years on as one of the prime beneficiaries of the battle for the Iraqi market.

Although Turkey’s relations with Baghdad are increasingly bitter, its exports to Iraq have in the past decade soared by more than 25 percent a year, reaching $10.8 billion in 2012, making Iraq Ankara’s second-most valuable export market after Germany.

Ozgur Altug, an economist at BGC Partners in Istanbul, predicts that as Iraq grows richer because of its oil reserves, demand for Turkish goods will keep climbing — by more than $2 billion a year. Turkish contractors have also been doing rich business, working on about $3.5 billion of construction projects last year, according to businessmen and officials.

One company, Calik Energy, boasts that it is building the two biggest projects in the Iraqi power sector, two gas turbine plants in the Mosul and Karbala regions, earning more than $800 million from the Iraqi government in the process.

While Iran is seen as the most influential outside power in Iraq today, on Baghdad’s streets Turkey’s presence is more visible than that of any other country, with everything from malls to furniture stores to pavement bricks bearing a Turkish trademark.

Turkey's big thirst for new power

Photo by Osman Orsal - Reuters

Florian NEUHOF*   The National


Turkey is in a rush to grow its energy sector. And recent news that the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, known as Taqa, will invest heavily in Turkish coal-fired power plants shows how serious Ankara is taking this commitment.

The deal, announced at the start of the year, will see Taqa build and operate a power generation base totalling 7,000 megawatts, or about 10 per cent of Turkey's electricity needs by the time the plants are completed.

Turkey's energy minister, Taner Yildiz, is keen to emphasise that efforts will be taken to minimise the environmental impact of the country's power sector.

The plants will be fed with lignite, a soft brown coal reviled by environmentalists for the emissions its use entails. Lignite is found in Turkey's soil and offers some relief in the complicated task of securing hydrocarbons from abroad.

Turkey is dependent on imports for 91 per cent of its oil and 98 per cent of its natural gas and it relies heavily on Iran and Russia for its supplies. It is therefore keen to push the share of electricity produced from gas from about 50 per cent to less than 30 per cent in the next decade and to diversify its hydrocarbon sources.
Turkey has reluctantly complied with United States and European Union demands to reduce imports from Iran as part of a new round of sanctions, but its dependence on Iranian supply has meant it has refused to cut economic ties with the country.

Turkey turns to coal to loosen Iran, Russia gas reliance

John McGarrity       Reuters

• Turkey relies to 70 pct on imports to meet energy demand

• Booming population need more electricity

• Domestic lignite to boost power production, reduce import needs

LONDON, (Reuters) - Turkey is turning to its own coal, worried about dependence on pricier gas from Iran and Russia, after a deal with a UAE company which will boost its coal-fired power capacity by two thirds.

Its biggest gas supplier is Russia's Gazprom, which accounts for around half of imports, but it is long-term supply from Iran that could pose the biggest concerns. Turkey might not be able to continue to ignore further tightening of international sanctions aimed at curtailing the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.

Gas imports have also been disrupted as a result of attacks on Iranian and Azeri import pipelines by Kurdish separatists.

"In public, Turkey has tried to show it won't bow to U.S. pressure, but even if can still buy Iranian gas, it's unlikely to be able to increase imports from a country that is subject to strict embargoes," said Alex Jackson, an analyst with political risk consultants Menas Associates.

Iran supplies around 16 percent of Turkey's gas needs, followed by 15 percent from Azerbaijan, according to International Energy Agency (IEA) figures.

Ankara has signed a $12 billion deal with Abu Dhabi's TAQA to mine lignite coal and build up to 8,000 megawatt (MW) of new power plants by 2020.

Turkey’s Energy Challenges

Daniel WAGNER* & Giorgio CAFIERO**      CounterPunch

Ankara will soon be confronted with some difficult foreign policy decisions that could affect its long-term energy interests. The discovery of vast reserves of natural gas off the coasts of Cyprus and Israel could oblige Turkey to resolve longstanding disputes with its neighbours.

Turkey has managed to maintain impressive growth rates over the past decade in spite of a lack of indigenous sources of energy. Ankara has pursued a foreign policy aimed at diversifying the country’s energy imports while simultaneously positioning itself as a major energy hub. Turkey’s geostrategic position makes achieving this dual objective challenging, but it has managed to strike a balance between being assertive and deferential in acquiring and managing its energy supply. While the Turkish government’s power to influence events in the region is of course limited, it will be compelled to make some difficult foreign policy decisions in the near term that could substantially impact its long-term energy interests.

Turkey imports 91 percent of its oil and 98 percent of its natural gas. In 2011, approximately 51 percent of its oil came from Iran and 55 percent of its natural gas from Russia. Iraq’s resurrection as a major oil and gas exporter to the world offers Turkey an opportunity to become an increasingly influential energy hub between the Arabian Gulf and European markets. However, the tense triangular relationship between Turkey, Iraq and the Kurdish Regional Government has greatly complicated the energy trade with Iraq. This has also cast doubt about the long-term reliability of the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline that exports nearly 400,000 barrels per day to the important port of Ceyhan in southern Turkey. Turkey’s perennial battle with Kurdish separatists has served to ensure that the relationship with Iraq remains problematic and uncertain.

Turkey weighs pivotal oil deal with Iraqi Kurdistan

Ben Ven Heuvelen     The Washington Post

ANKARA, Turkey — American diplomats are struggling to prevent a seismic shift in Turkey’s policy toward Iraq, a change that U.S. officials fear could split the foundations of that fractious state.

The most volatile fault line in Iraq divides the semiautonomous Kurdistan region in the north from the Arab-majority central government in Baghdad. As the two sides fight for power over territory and oil rights, Turkey is increasingly siding with the Kurds.

Kurdish and Turkish leaders have had a budding courtship for five years. But now Turkey is negotiating a massive deal in which a new Turkish company, backed by the government, is proposing to drill for oil and gas in Iraq’s Kurdish region and build pipelines to transport those resources to international markets. The negotiations were confirmed by four senior Turkish officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of political sensitivities.

“Turkey hasn’t needed to ask what we think of this, because we tell them at every turn,” said a senior U.S. official involved in Middle East policymaking, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with the media. The official said that any bilateral energy deals with the Kurdistan region would “threaten the unity of Iraq and push [Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki closer to Iran.”

Turkey’s energy dance

 
J. Berkshire Miller*    CNN

Surrounded by a sea of uncertainty, Turkey continues a sustained effort to bolster its ties with East Asia. Ankara has long established relations with the region’s key players, including China, Japan and South Korea. A historical lack of management of these key relationships, though, has led to Turkey underperforming in its attempts to brand itself in the region. At the same time, though, Turkey is facing considerable challenges and opportunities in its own geopolitical neighborhood.

The strategic topography of the Middle East remains dynamic and unpredictable, and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe risks jeopardizing Ankara’s significant interests in exporting and serving as a transit country to the continent. This region will always be Turkey’s backyard and the legacy of the Ottoman Empire allows a certain amount of exceptionalism – and sometimes isolation – when dealing with neighbors.

One area where Ankara is hoping to secure an agreement with Asia is through the development of its civil nuclear program. As Turkey’s economy and population have continued to grow, the government has remained committed to finding new energy sources to meet increased demand.

But complicating matters have been strained relations with Syria, Iran and the Kurdish region of Iraq. Nearly half of Turkey’s energy imports come in the form of gas, mainly from Russia and Iran. Gas from Iran makes up as much as 20 percent of Turkey’s total energy imports – a number that’s declining rapidly due to American pressure to isolate Tehran over its nuclear program.

Iranian oil minister to meet with Turkish energy minister to discuss oil and gas trade.

REUTERS

Iran is expected to try to revive demand for its oil in Turkey, its biggest European customer, this week when, according to Turkish energy ministry officials, its oil minister is to meet with Turkish officials in Ankara.

Iranian oil minister Rostam Qasemi is expected to meet Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz on Thursday to discuss supplying oil and gas to one of Europe's fastest growing economies, the officials said.

Tehran has struggled to find new buyers for its barrels after U.S. and European Union sanctions succeeded in halving Iran's global oil exports in the four months from February to June.

Non-EU Turkey, which imported around 200,000 barrels a day of Iranian crude in 2011, also sharply reduced shipments earlier this year to win a waiver from U.S. sanctions that allows it to continue purchasing Iranian crude through the second half of 2012.

China sees role for regional bloc in Afghanistan

Gleb BRYANSKI   REUTERS


BEIJING - (Reuters) - A regional bloc bringing together China, Russia and central Asian states wants to play a bigger role in Afghanistan, Chinese President Hu Jintao said in an interview published on Wednesday, as regional leaders gathered for their annual summit.

The future of neighbor Afghanistan, facing the withdrawal of most foreign combat forces by the end of 2014, is likely to be discussed at the two-day meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), whose member states fear growing instability spilling across the central Asian region as the pullout goes on.

"We will continue to manage regional affairs by ourselves, guarding against shocks from turbulence outside the region, and will play a bigger role in Afghanistan's peaceful reconstruction," Hu was quoted as saying in an interview with China's official People's Daily newspaper about the SCO summit.

"We'll strengthen communication, coordination and cooperation in dealing with major international and regional issues," said Hu.

The SCO, founded in 2001, includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Iran, India, Pakistan and others attend the summits, but not as full members.