Iran said on Sunday that international oil companies have started the process to pay their oil dues for previous purchases.

Ali-Asqar Hendi, an official from Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum, has been quoted by the local media as saying that the country expects to receive all the oil dues from foreign companies by April.

This, he said, is because the banking problems that prevented the companies to transfer payments to Iran have been removed in light of the removal of the sanctions against Tehran last month.

Hendi added however that Iran has considered an exception for the Greek refineries given the current economic problems that Athens is facing.

He said the debts from the Greek refineries will be collected through a lengthy time-phased process.

The official further said that the UAE’s retailer Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) owes Iran as much as $5.3 billion for purchases of condensate, stressing that the company has already started the process to settle its debts to Tehran.

On a related front, the Anglo Dutch energy giant Shell announced last week that it has started the proceedings to repay a total debt of above $2 billion to Iran.

The sanctions - that were lifted in January - for multiple years imposed tight limits on Iran’s financial interactions with the world.  They also prevented companies from investing in the country’s energy projects among other restrictions.

Iranian officials have already announced that the country wants to recover tens of billions of dollars it is owed by buyers of its oil in euros.

By Press TV