TEHRAN, Feb. 15 (Shana) � Iran says it offers no special discounts to its crude oil customers and prices its oil according to market norms.

"It is not true to say Iran gives discounts to its customers and the country sells its own according to the official prices in the market," Mohsen Qamsari, director for international affairs at National Iranian Oil Company said.

He said Iran is in talks with a large number of foreign companies to ship oil cargoes to them including companies from Hungry.

"Iran prices its crude oil supplies based on official prices in its new deals and it does not offer discounts to its customers," said the official reacting to reports by some media saying that Tehran grants handsome discounts to its customers to win the market share it lost to its traditional regional rivals, including Saudi Arabia which offers tantalizing discounts to its customers to win a bigger market share amidst the current price rout in the global crude oil market.

Qamsari further said talks are under way with Italy's Saras and negotiations with Eni will begin in a few days.

Earlier this week, Iran shipped a consignment of 4mb of crude oil to Europe which was purchased by Total as well as two other companies from Russia and Spain.

By SHANA