Russia will begin importing Iranian oil under a long-heralded oil-for-goods barter arrangement in the coming week, Iran's oil minister was quoted as saying, more than a year after negotiations began.

The agreement struck between the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) and Iran on March 2 paved the way for a comprehensive deal to begin lifting sanctions in late June. Iran has been off limits to most foreign investors for nearly a decade. Unsurprisingly, it is regarded as El Dorado by many international corporations, particularly those in the energy sector.

"Indonesian energy minister Sudirman Said met with Iran's oil minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh last week. We [Indonesia and Iran] agreed on two things -- Indonesia to buy Iranian crude and Iran allows Indonesia to participate in upstream business there," Dadan Kusdiana, spokesman at the energy and mines ministry said Thursday.

It is not economically feasible to start exporting gas to Europe, an Iranian energy official dealing with the international affairs and contracts announced.

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh will visit Germany on May 7th after a large German economic delegation of more than 100 businessmen arrived in Tehran in late April to spur bilateral ties.

Iran’s natural gas production has reached 660 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) and the country is expected to increase this volume to 760 mcm/d by next spring.

Iranian #oil officials are in Beijing this week to discuss oil sales and Chinese investments in #Iran, just days after Tehran and world powers reached a framework nuclear deal, and with the #OPEC nation's oil minister due to arrive on Thursday.

China will build a pipeline to bring natural gas from Iran to Pakistan to help address Pakistan’s acute energy shortage, under a deal to be signed during the Chinese president’s visit to Islamabad this month, Pakistani officials said.

Iran is believed to hold at least 30 million barrels in storage, and EIA believes Iran has the technical capability to ramp up crude oil production by at least 700,000 bbl/day (bbl/d) by the end of 2016. The pace and magnitude at which those volumes would reach the market would depend on the terms of a final agreement.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry announced that Tokyo imported 26 percent more oil from Iran in 2015. According to a report released by the ministry, Japan’s crude imports from Iran amounted to 1086 million kilo liters or 243,000 barrels per day, which shows a 26-percent increase compared with the previous month.