Shell cleared all debts in Iran – Official

An Iranian official said on Sunday that the global energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has cleared all outstanding payments from previous oil sales and other related deals.

The announcement was made by Ali-Asqar Hendi, the head of the Debts Settlement Committee of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran.

Hendi had previously said that Shell owes Iran over $2 billion.

The company had in early March announced that it had paid €1.77 billion (£1.4 billion) it owed the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), settling debts after sanctions against the country were lifted in January.

The outstanding debt to Iran was a result of Iranian oil deliveries which Shell had been unable to pay for due to sanctions, Reuters reported on 7 March.

The Anglo-Dutch company resumed talks with Tehran on the debt after most Western sanctions were lifted in January. The payments were made over the next few weeks after the removal of the sanctions in euros as dollar transactions are still under US sanctions, Reuters added.

Analysts believe that the move will now allow Shell to access the Iranian oil market. This is because the NIOC has been working to recover its debt, as a precondition to start exporting oil to Shell.

Shell, along with its European peers, has already showed a keen interest to return to the Iranian oil and gas projects. The Anglo-Dutch oil giant alongside BP, Total, and Statoil, sent a delegation to Tehran in November last year, to explore opportunities in the upstream sector of the country.

The company was involved in the development of Iran’s Soroush and Norouz oil fields in Persian Gulf waters.  It was also planning to develop a gas liquefaction project called Persian LNG in Iran’s South Pars energy zone. However, it later cancelled its plans to that effect as a result of the sanctions.

The sanctions – that were lifted in January – for multiple years imposed tight limits on Iran’s financial transactions with the world.  They also prevented companies from investing in the country’s energy projects among other restrictions.