Copy in clipboard...
EU countries resume crude imports from Iran: Eurostat
Bulgaria raised its oil imports from Iran in the quarter to March by 113% compared to the same period last year to 314 metric tons (mt). Poland’s oil imports from Iran, a first reported in the past two years, was a 19 mt shipment that took place in March.
Georgia, an EU candidate country, imported 544 mt of oil from Iran in the March quarter, down from 974 mt reported in the same quarter last year. Eurostat figures also indicated that Turkey has resumed importing oil from Iran in March this year nearly four years after it cut shipments to zero to comply with US sanctions on Tehran.
Eurostat data cited in a report by Iran’s official IRNA news agency showed that Turkey had imported 576 mt of oil from Iran in March and another 485 mt in April.
Turkey’s last oil shipment from Iran had been reported in August 2020 when the country bowed to US pressure and stopped the imports.
The figures are yet another sign that more countries have stopped complying with US sanctions on Iran and are taking delivery of oil shipments from the Islamic Republic.
Reports suggest more European countries are willing to ignore US sanctions on Iran and import oil from country now that Tehran is selling record volumes of oil to Asian markets.
Iran’s oil exports reached more than 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in some months of this year and in 2023, up from records lows of 0.3 million bpd reported in 2019 when the US intensified its sanctions against Tehran.
Iranian Minister of Oil Javad Owji said on June 22 that the country currently exports crude oil to 15 countries.
Speaking in a joint news conference with Government Spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi and Head of the Department of Environment Ali Salajegheh, the minister added that the gas production volume of Iran has increased by 53 million cubic meters/day in the administration of the late president Ebrahim Raisi.
The capacity of storing gas has increased by one billion cubic meters and $23 billion worth of capital was invested for the development of the joint oil fields, Owji stated.
He also said 153 projects in the up- and downstream sectors, valued at $34 billion, were launched during Raisi’s administration.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Owji pointed to Iran’s extraction of gas from the South Pars Gas Field shared with the neighboring Qatar and added that Iran’s gas extraction from the joint field is 100 million cubic meters more than Qatar’s.