US allows India to purchase Iran oil

US has agreed to let 8 countries purchase oil

Washington, Nov. 2: The US government has agreed to let eight countries, including close allies South Korea and Japan, as well as India, keep buying Iranian oil after it reimposes sanctions on Tehran from next week, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing a US official.

Iran’s biggest oil customers — all in Asia — have been seeking sanctions waivers to allow them to still buy some of its oil.

Bloomberg reported that close US allies South Korea and Japan had received waivers along with India, which relies heavily on supplies from Iran, adding that a list of all countries getting waivers was expected to be released officially on Monday.

A Chinese official told Reuters that discussions with the US government were ongoing and that a result was expected over the next couple of days.

“We think Trump will agree to China importing some volumes, similar to the treatment that India and South Korea receive,” Clayton Allen of Height Securities said in a note on Friday. However, analysts said any potential Iranian oil sanction waivers would likely only be temporary.

“The US may use waivers to slow-walk implementation, but these will not apply indefinitely,” Allen said. Goldman Sachs said it expects Iran’s crude oil exports to fall to 1.15 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the year, down from around 2.5 million bpd in mid-2018.

The US Treasury is going to demand the SWIFT global financial network stop servicing Iran’s banking industry as part of enforcing sanctions over the country’s nuclear program and alleged support for terrorism. Another 700 companies, individuals, businesses, aircraft and ships will be added to the US sanctions list, widely expanding the people and entities Washi-ngton seeks to block from accessing global business and financial networks. The reimposition of sanctions “is aimed at depriving the regime of the revenues it uses to spread death and destruction,” Pompeo said.

around the world,” Pompeo said. “Our ultimate aim is to compel Iran to permanently abandon its well documented outlaw activities and behave as a normal country.”

He said the exemptions on importing Iranian oil were being granted to countries that have pledged to or have already cut back on purchases of petroleum from Iran, which has long depended on crude exports to power its economy. He did not name the eight countries, but they are believed to include India, Japan, South Korea, and possibly China.