LONDON (Reuters) ? Iran has ready alternatives to a threatened European Union embargo on its oil and increased pressure from Washington, and intends to keep up exports of some 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, a senior Iranian oil official told Reuters.
EU governments have reached a preliminary agreement to ban imports of Iranian crude to the European Union but have yet to decide when such an embargo would be put in place, EU diplomats said on Wednesday. ]
Tehran had already considered different routes if that were to happen, S. M. Qamsari, International Director of the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC), said by telephone from Tehran shortly before the announcement.
"We could very easily replace those customers," said Qamsari. Some, but not all, of any displaced volume could move into China as well as other Asian countries and Africa, he said. Iran was unlikely just to store crude on tankers as that was only a short-term solution.
He said he expected shipments would remain unchanged this year.
"We've got very high demand from our lifters, so we have the same quantity (just above 2.3 million bpd) in our term contracts," Qamsari said.
Roughly 30 percent, or just under 700,000 bpd, of Iran's oil steams west of Suez, he said. More than half that volume is shipped to Europe, roughly 200,000 bpd moves into Turkey and the remainder is routed into Africa.
The International Energy Agency estimates Iran exports about 450,000 bpd to the European Union.
(Reporting by Peg Mackey; editing by James Jukwey)
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