MNA � The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) announced on Tuesday that the first round of heavy crude oil supply at Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX) will be launched on April 30.

One million barrels of heavy crude will be offered at the first round at the base price of $63.51 per barrel.

The offering will be conducted within the same framework that light crude and gas condensate have been offered at IRENEX.

Accordingly, the heavy crude will be offered in cargos of 35,000 barrels each, and buyers are required to purchase a minimum of one cargo.

Purchases can be carried out with a 6% pre-payment in foreign currencies. The buyers may clear their debts based on the mechanisms already defined by the Oil Ministry.

The cargo can be loaded up until four months after the purchase is done, and receiving the cargos at other terminals will need NIOC's approval.

The Oil Ministry subsidiary is has offered eight rounds of light crude sale at IRENEX.

Offering crude oil on the stock market is part of efforts to involve the private sector and international companies in the oil industry. However, the move has not produced the desired results yet, as in the past eight rounds of offering, NIOC hardly managed to sell 1.015 million barrels of crude on IRENEX.