No legs seen for Iran oil-export increase

LONDON — Iran, once OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, will be unable to sustain an increase in crude exports that support its economy when some measures to curb those shipments are eased, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.

The European Union said last month that it intends to suspend a ban in December or January on insuring tankers carrying Iranian oil. The United States said it will stop forcing buyers to cut purchases, even if they still aren’t allowed to increase them. The concessions are in return for commitments from the Persian Gulf state to provide more information on its nuclear program, which Western powers claim is intended to make weapons. Neither the European Union nor the U.S. lifted sanctions on importing the nation’s oil.

“The fact that the oil sanctions remain fully in place leaves on the face of it no room for any sustained increase in exports,” the International Energy Agency, a Parisbased adviser to 28 nations, said in a report Wednesday. “Even if sanctions on Iranian oil were eventually relaxed, meaningful increases in production would require a longer period and additional investment in Iran’s upstream, and thus would take time to materialize.”

Iran’s oil shipments to other nations rose by 89,000 barrels a day to 850,000 barrels in November, the agency said, including both crude and condensates. The country cut the amount of oil stored on tankers to 22 million barrels by the end of the month from 37 million barrels in October, the agency said.