Iran Says U.S. Firms Interested in Buying Oil

Several U.S. oil companies are discussing the purchase of Iranian crude oil for sale in the United States for the first time in more than four years, a senior official of the National Iranian Oil Co. said Tuesday.

The remarks by the official came during an international oil conference in Isfahan. It followed a weekend report in the Middle East Economic Survey newsletter that said Iran had recently sold some Iranian oil to U.S. companies for American destinations.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the state-run company has been holding price negotiations with several American oil companies, including Chevron Corp.

A spokeswoman at Chevron headquarters in San Francisco, Bonnie Chaikind, said the company was meeting with Iranian officials. She said she did not know the outcome of the meeting.

The move was the latest step backed by President Hashemi Rafsanjani and other Iranian pragmatists aimed at improving ties with the West. On Monday, Rafsanjani opened an international conference of oil producers and consuming nations by saying Iran seeks to re-enter the world economy.

The conference is the first such gathering Iran has hosted in a decade.

The United States banned the import of Iranian oil in October, 1987, to punish Iran for attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war.

Late last year, the Bush Administration announced a partial lifting of the ban. It requires special import licenses for Iranian oil and payment into a special account in The Hague, Netherlands, to settle U.S. and Iranian claims stemming from Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

The oil company official also said Iran hopes U.S. regulations can be modified so that some of the proceeds of oil sales to the United States can be paid directly to the Iranian government.

Iran, which is trying to diversify its crude export markets and boost its overall output, might be able to sell as much as 400,000 barrels a day in the U.S. market over the next few years, the official said.

Iran’s current output is 3.5 million barrels per day.