Iran's oil minister has said the Islamic Republic will begin exporting oil to Russia later this week under a barter deal. In exchange for oil, Russia will deliver industrial equipment, construction materials and grain, the minister said.

Iran hopes to begin its long-planned "oil for goods" barter agreement with Russia later this week, Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said at the weekend.

"We hope that next week they [the Russians] will accept their first oil imports," the minister told TASS reporters following a meeting of OPEC nations in Vienna.

According to TASS, details of the scheme first emerged last April, when Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia and Iran would launch an "oil for goods" program after the Western powers reached an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program. The original reports said that Iran was willing to supply Russia with up to 500,000 barrels of oil a day, amounting to 25 million tons per year, in exchange for Russian goods and equipment. According to Reuters, the transaction would have been worth approximately $1.5 billion per month.

However, Mr. Zanganeh said last week it wasn't yet clear how much oil Russia would need, though he confirmed it would be "much less" than the 500,000 barrels a day that was first reported. He added that Iran would take deliveries of industrial equipment, construction materials and grain in return for its oil.

As part of the deal, the Iranian government is prepared to open three new maritime shipping lanes across the Caspian Sea to deliver export goods to Russia and other countries in the Caspian basin, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) reported.

"Merchant vessels will leave the three ports on the Caspian coast of Iran - Anzali, Amirabad and Noshahra," the agency said. "Therefore, the authorities of the Islamic Republic will seek to expand the export of Iranian goods to regional and world markets, especially to Russia."

Iran is quietly hopeful of a massive expansion in foreign trade once its nuclear deal with the West is formalized and sanctions are lifted, ISNA said. Iran's government has assigned six vessels to make regular, monthly visits to the Kazakhstani ports of Aktau and Astrakhan, each of which can transport around 6.5 tons of cargo.

Iran's oil exports decreased by 50 percent after the West placed sanctions on the country in 2001 due to a dispute over its nuclear program. According to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, neither the oil deliveries nor the export of goods to Iran violate existing sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

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