Tehran: Iranian Oil Terminals on Sunday received the first cargo of Azeri crude for transit via Iran, the Oil Ministry's news agency, Shana, said on its website.
Azerbaijan sold oil bound for Iran after routes through Turkey and the Caucasus had been disrupted by a pipeline explosion and fighting between Georgia and Russia, an unidentified Azeri official said last week.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which carries Azeri crude through Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean coast, resumed normal flows on August 22 after a fire halted exports earlier this month.
Iran can handle some 200,000 barrels a day of Caspian and Central Asian crude and is able to increase the volume received to 500,000 barrels a day under swap agreements, the news agency said.
Under such a deal Iran would direct the imported oil to its northern refineries and export an equivalent volume from its southern ports, Shana said.
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