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‘Iran seeks big discount to buy Nov gasoline’

* World’s fifth-largest crude oil exporter lacks sufficient refining capacity to meet domestic demand and imports up to 40 percent of its gasoline requirements

DUBAI: Iran is holding out for big discounts on its purchases of gasoline for November, offering 25-30 percent less than market prices even though the risk of US sanctions means sellers expect a premium, traders said.

Industry sources said on Monday it was unrealistic for Tehran to seek the kind of low prices that might be negotiated by a favoured buyer like Saudi Arabia. Tehran, which cut its October gasoline purchases by about 20 percent, compared with the previous month, to 102,120 barrels per day (bpd) or about 12 cargoes of gasoline, does not appear to have done any deals yet for next month, traders said.

“It’s ridiculous what they are asking for, it’s almost as if they are not interested in buying...but I get the sense they are struggling with the premiums attached to cargoes sold into Iran,” said a Middle East based trader. “So far they are still talking, I don’t think they have concluded anything yet...and traders are not willing to trade at those levels so buyer and seller are on the sidelines.”

On Monday, gasoline being offered for sale into the Middle East was being pegged at a premium of between $70 - $80 a barrel to Middle East benchmark naphtha prices. The world’s fifth-largest crude oil exporter lacks sufficient refining capacity to meet its domestic demand and imports up to 40 percent of its gasoline requirements.

It subsidises gasoline, which is therefore among the world’s cheapest, encouraging fast growth in demand and making it very reliant on imports from the international markets.

Domestic demand to persist: Traders do not expect its consumption patterns to shrink soon despite a decision by parliament on Sunday to end the subsidies. The bill still needs to be passed by the country’s hardline watchdog body, the Guardian Council.

“The decision still rests with their (Guardian Council), so this bill is not fully on its way...and even if it passes it will only cap growth and keep consumption at present levels which is still high,” a Middle East based trader said.

Tehran said earlier this month that it would need an additional $6.5 billion from the budget through March to cover higher-than-expected import costs.

“Iran is a premium business, if they want to buy they are going to have to pay for the barrels, it’s very different if say Saudi Arabia comes to us with a low number, they are a gold customer,” an Asian based gasoline trader said, adding that there was no risk in doing business with the Saudis.

Iran which has already been hit by three rounds of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear programme, which Washington suspects to be aimed at producing weapons. Tehran says its purpose is to generate electricity. The West views Iran’s gasoline imports as vulnerability. Last week the US Senate approved legislation to punish foreign oil companies that export gasoline to Iran.

The US House of Representatives approved the same measure earlier this month to ban companies that sell Iran gasoline from also delivering crude oil to the US emergency stockpile.

“For obvious reasons we are trying to do as little business with them as possible, it’s getting too complicated,” a Middle East based trader said. reuters

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