Azerbaijan is selling oil to Iran after routes through Turkey and Caucasus were disrupted due to a pipeline explosion and clash between Georgia and Russia, an Azeri official said on Wednesday.

According Tehran Times, an official in Azerbaijan's state oil company Socar, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Bloomberg that Baku had awarded a tender for 300,000 tons Azeri Light crude to Middle East Petrol - a Dubai-based oil trading and shipping company - to load the oil in a month or so.

The conflict between Russia and Georgia has also led to the closure of the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline that normally transports 90,000 bpd of crude oil from the Azeri capital to the Georgian port in the Black Sea.

The report added that from then on the Swiss Vitol company will load Iran's light crude, as it has a long-term contract with Iran's Nikoo Consulting Inc. under which it delivers Azeri oil to Iran at the Caspian Sea port of Neka and load an equal amount of Iranian oil at Khark Island, in the Persian Gulf.