US oil ban reversal not to harm Iran

Iran says it will suffer the least among oil producers from the US decision to lift a 40-year ban on exporting crude oil.

“With the liberation of crude oil and even gas condensate exports in the US, Iran will experience the least harm,” the chief executive of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Rokneddin Javadi, was quoted by Mehr news agency as saying.

He said that oil-rich regions like North Sea, Mexico deepwaters, Asia deepwaters and even in Africa are set to be harmed by the US oil decision.

“But naturally, the market will be oversupplied and at least the US and Far East markets will be affected immediately,” he added.

Javadi also said that US’s future oil supply on the market will force countries selling oil at high prices to “limit their oil production and supply.”

Earlier this month, Congress voted to repeal the 40-year-old ban on US crude oil exports, imposed after the Arab oil embargo of the early 1970s that sent petrol prices soaring and gave rise to runaway inflation.

Russia, a top oil producer, has said that the US decision will not affect the global oil market.

The US Energy Information Administration said recently that the United States consumed around 19 million barrels per day (b/d) of oil products in 2014, a fifth of the world’s total.