IEA: Iranian Crude Oil Exports Rising

The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that Iran’s crude oil exports are rebounding in the wake of a recent nuclear deal between Tehran and the six major world powers in the Swiss city of Geneva.
The Paris-based intergovernmental organization said that preliminary estimates show that the receipts of Iranian petroleum and gas condensate exports climbed by 89,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November to 850,000 bpd, as China increased its purchases and Iran’s energy shipments to Taiwan resumed, press tv reported.

The global energy agency added that the shipments would have been arranged prior to the Geneva nuclear accord, suggesting that the Iranian oil industry is already improving.

The IEA further noted that tanker data show Iran withdrew 15mln barrels out of its floating storage while its production increased by 13,000 bpd to 2.71mln bpd in the past two months.

It also stated that global oil demand will be higher than expected next year, and that could drive up prices of oil in the international market amid constant production disruptions.

On December 3, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said the country will “immediately” raise its crude oil exports to four million bpd once the illegal US-led sanctions have been lifted.

The Iranian minister has invited French Total, Royal Dutch Shell, Norwegian Statoil, Italian Eni, and British Petroleum as well as US Exxon and Conoco companies to develop oil projects in Iran.

At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran. The sanctions were imposed on the basis of the false allegation against Iran’s nuclear energy program.

On November 24, Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members — the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain — plus Germany sealed an interim deal in Geneva to pave the way for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program.

In exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the six countries have agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against the Islamic Republic.