Via the PakObserver, a report that Iran and South Korea have signed a contract to construct a 1,680-kilometer pipeline to transport oil from the Caspian Sea in the north to the Sea of Oman in the south.  According to the article:

“…The pipeline, which will transport crude oil from the port of Neka in northern Iran to the port of Jask in the south of the country, will facilitate oil swaps with Caspian Sea littoral states, said the report.

It is expected that the construction of the pipeline will cost 3.3 to 3.7 billion U.S. dollars, according to the report. Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ahmad Qale’bani said Iran intends to boost the volume of its oil swaps with Caspian Sea countries to 200,000 barrels per day by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2012).

Qale’bani said that bartering oil is high on the agenda of NIOC, adding that the company is in talks with Central Asian countries to increase the volume of its oil swaps, which currently stands at 25,000 barrels per day, the satellite Press TV reported. Under the oil swap arrangements, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan each provide Iran with some crude oil, then Iran sells an equal amount of its own crude in the Persian Gulf to those countries. One of the benefits for Iran to swap Caspian sea oil is that it does not have to build more pipelines to bring crude from the southern oil fields to northern Iran.”