A senior Iranian businessman says a recent deal between Iran and Iraq to swap Iranian gas and electricity for Iraqi crude oil and mazut will benefit Iran and will remove hurdles created by the United States in energy trade between the two neighboring countries.

�With this agreement with Iraq for barter of oil for gas, the US ability to stonewall (payments) will be restricted and given Iraq�s situation, the deal can benefit Iran,� said Hamid Hosseini, who serves as board manager at Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters Union (OPEX), on Saturday.

Hosseini said that Iran will be able to receive some 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) of heavy grade crude oil and another 70,000 bpd of mazut from Iraq to compensate for a part of its supply of natural gas and electricity to Iraq which he said is believed to be between $10�million and $15 million per day.

Facing a lower supply of natural gas from Iran to its power plants, Iraq was grappling with extensive power cuts during the scorching heat of early July.

The Arab country finally decided to agree to a long-running proposal from Iran to pay for the country�s natural gas and electricity in crude oil.

By Press TV