ran\'s Road and Transport Minister Ahmad Khorram says his country will raise its capacity for swap in crude oil with the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan to 200,000 barrels a day next year, the state-run Tehran television reported Saturday. Iran presently has a swap capacity of 120,000 b/d of oil with its northern neighbor, Khorram told members of a Kazakh delegation taking part in the two countries\' seventh joint economic cooperation commission, held in Tehran on Saturday. He said the cost of oil swap through Iran to international crude markets for Kazakhstan stands at around $11 a metric ton, whereas the next cheapest available route will cost that country more than $25 a metric ton, thereby making the application of the Iranian route most attractive to that country in terms of cost. However, the U.S. is advising Iran\'s oil-rich northern neighbors against engaging in any kind of long-term oil deals as part of ongoing trade and economic sanctions against Iran. If Kazakhstan chooses to engage in an oil swap with Iran, it will have to transfer its oil to the Iranian Caspian Sea port of Neka, where it will be pumped through a pipeline to a refinery in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz or to a refinery south of the capital Tehran. In return, Iran will deliver Kazakhstan\'s customers a crude of comparable quality at a Persian Gulf oil terminal. Khorram said the volume of trade between the two countries now stands at around $130 million a year, but in view of Kazakhstan trade potentials and the projected cooperation in oil swap, the volume will rise to around a billion a year. The Iranian minister said Iran is preparing for up to 370,000 b/d of oil swap with its Central Asian neighbors by next year. Tehran is intent on improving its ties with its Central Asian republics to improve the likelihood of establishing a trade corridor linking the countries in the north with the Persian Gulf and international waters through Iran. In its efforts to foster closer ties with its northern neighbors, Iran on Thursday signed a $500 million deal with Turkmenistan. As part of the agreement, Turkmenistan will have to export 2.4 billion kilowatts of electricity to Iran for the next 10 years. (Dow Jones)