Greece calls for Iranian gas

 A fresh round of gas sale negotiations with Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum S.A. was held Wed. morning in Tehran.

The new round of talks between Tehran and Athens was attended by Iranian Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs Amir Hossein Zamaninia and Greece’s visiting Alternate Foreign Minister for European Affairs George Katrougalos.

The Wednesday morning session in Tehran focused on collecting Greece’s oil debt to Iran as well as reaching an agreement on natural gas sales.

Petroleum Ministry's Director General for Europe, US, and Caspian Sea Neighbors Hossein Esmaeili, while pointing to willingness of the Greek to purchase Iranian gas, said companies of the European country were sought to make presence in Iran’s refinery and gas industries in addition to buying natural gas.

Also at the meeting, Greece’s Katrougalos said his country attached great importance to ties with Iran as well as that Athens was willing to bolster relations with Tehran in various arenas.

"The last year visit of Greek PM Alexis Tsipras to Iran paved the path for development of cooperation between the two countries,” highlighted the official voicing his country’s readiness to exploit venues for reinvigoration economic ties with Iran.

Tehran and Athens had previously reached agreement on settlement of outstanding debts such that Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum S.A. made a commitment to retire its debts to Iran within two years.

"Several rounds of talks have been conducted between Iranian and Greek officials in Tehran and Athens,” Deputy Iranian Oil Minister Zamaninia had previously underlined adding that Greece had agreed to settle its oil debts to Iran over two years.

The official had also maintained that Hellenic Petroleum’s amount of debt to be 900 million euros.

In the years 2010 to 2012, Greece had paid about 5 to 6 billion dollars for the purchase of Iranian oil, but the halt in imports from Iran due to international sanctions as well as the stoppage in Libya’s oil production in the same period, had forced Greek companies to increase oil purchase from Russia and Kazakhstan.