Iran’s gasoline imports fell 50 percent last month as sanctions over the
nation’s nuclear program spurred traders to halt supplies, according to
Energy Market Consultants Ltd.
Iran received about 60,000 barrels a day in July, compared with 120,000
in May, Vijay Mukherji, a London-based research associate at EMC, said
by phone today. The consultant revised its earlier estimate of 65,000 to
70,000 barrels a day.
RELATED: Iran to invest $46b. in refineries to fight sanctionsUS: Iran sanctions starting to bite“International trading companies have pulled back,” Mukherji said. “The US, Europe and the UN are aiming to cut Iran off. They just don’t want them to get any oil-product supplies.”
US President Barack Obama signed legislation on July 1 that punishes foreign suppliers of Iran’s gasoline and blocks access to the American financial system for banks that do business with the country. Gasoline sanctions weren’t mandated by the UN or imposed by the European Union.
Shipments of the fuel are now dominated by Turkish and Chinese
companies, Mukherji said. Before the sanctions, Emirati, Russian and
international trading companies were also significant suppliers, he
said.
Three state-controlled Russian oil companies, including OAO Rosneft and
OAO Gazprom Neft, may begin delivering gasoline to Iran in a month,
Rajab Safarov, head of the Iran Commission of the Moscow Chamber of
Commerce & Industry, said yesterday.