OREANDA-NEWS. Iran has again raised the imminent prospect of sending crude to Russia, although details were scant and there was no confirmation from Moscow.

Iran's oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said the deal to supply Russia with 100,000 b/d of its crude will be signed within two weeks. He had met with Russian energy minister Alexander Novak in Tehran.

No indication was given as to the logistics of such a deal. Russia and Iran do not share a border and are not linked by pipeline. Iran could theoretically move the required volumes to its northern terminal of Neka and from there across the Caspian Sea to the port of Makhachkala in Russia.

Why Russia, which produces more than 11mn b/d of its own crude, would want Iranian volumes is also unclear. The Russian energy ministry's account of the meeting between Zanganeh and Novak made no mention of the proposed deal. Russia's state-controlled Rosneft is hungry for crude, but not to take to Russia. This week it struck offtake deals with Libya's state-owned NOC and with Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdistan region, as it looks to secure crude for its growing overseas refining operations.

The Russian firm last year bought a 49pc stake in India's 400,000 b/d Vadinar refinery, which it plans to load with its own crude. In Germany, Rosneft holds a 25pc stake in refining consortium Bayernoil, which operates the 210,000 b/d Neustadt-Vohburg refining complex, a 24pc stake in the 301,000 b/d Miro refinery and controls the 208,000 b/d Schwedt refinery with 54pc.

Talk of Iran supplying crude to Russia first surfaced in February 2014 when Iran's ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Sanaei said the two countries were mulling a deal that would in turn see Russia supplying goods and technologies. US and EU sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme hindered efforts to move this forward, but the initiative appears to have been given new life since the lifting of sanctions in January 2016.

This latest round of talks on the crude supply proposal is the second in as many months, after a meeting between Zanganeh and Novak in Tehran in December. Then, as now, details were thin. But Zanganeh said Russian payment for this crude would be made both in cash and in the provision of Russian goods "that Iran requires."