Iran looking for new EU oil clients
Iran is negotiating with new European clients to sell its crude oil, said Iran’s deputy oil minister for petrochemical affairs.
Marzieh Shahdaei, who is the managing director of National Petrochemical Company, further said that the move is part of Iran’s policy to increase oil exports specifically to Europe, reported Press TV.
She also suggested this could be in response to recent declines in purchases by Iran’s Asian clients. However, she underlined, the decline in purchases have not had any adverse impacts on the country’s oil exports.
“The fact that certain Asian clients have reduced their purchases from Iran never means that Iran’s capability to export has been undermined,” Shahdaei said.
“Once our negotiations succeed, the share of European clients in Iran’s export will grow.”
Recently reports said that some Asian clients of Iran’s oil had reduced their purchases. They included India and South Korea.
Figures released by Reuters showed that imports of Iranian oil last month had seen a decline of 27 percent compared to the figure for the same period last year.
Other reports emerged last week that showed South Korea’s imports from Iran had declined by around 10 percent in October compared to the figure for the previous month.
For several years before 2012 when Iran faced a series of draconian Us-led sanctions, the country exported around 2.5 million barrels per day (mbd), with more than half going to Asia, mainly China, South Korea, India and Japan. The sanctions reduced exports to below 1 mbd. After they were lifted in January 2016, Iran’s oil exports picked up gradually and today stand at around pre-sanctions levels.
Iran’s biggest oil importer in Asia is China followed by India and South Korea and eventually Japan.