Iran sanctions expected to push oil prices to $90
Experts say disruption to crude oil supplies from Iran as a result of US sanctions may push oil prices to as high as $90 a barrel.
“We are in a very attractive oil price environment and our house view is that oil will hit $90 by the end of the second quarter of next year,” Hootan Yazhari, head of frontier markets equity research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch told CNBC.
“We are moving into an environment where supply disruptions are visible all over the world, and of course President Trump has been pretty active in trying to isolate Iran and getting US allies not to purchase oil from Iran,” he added.
In May, US President Donald Trump announced that he would pull America out of a 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and re-impose the sanctions that the deal had envisaged to be lifted.
He has already emphasized that the sanctions which would be imposed on Iran would be “at the highest level”.
The sanctions would include a universal ban on Iran over buying or acquiring US dollars as well as restrictions over purchases of crude oil from the country and investing in its oil sector projects.
Earlier this week, media reported that the administration of US President Donald Trump had already started a campaign to pressure America’s allies to cut all oil imports from Iran starting November.
However, the push appears to have already faced resistance by Iran’s major oil clients such as India and Turkey.
On Thursday, Sunjay Sudhir, the joint secretary for international cooperation at India's petroleum ministry, was quoted by media as saying that New Delhi would not recognize unilateral sanctions against Iran and would preserve its right to ignore Washington’s demand.
Turkey’s Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci on Wednesday also rejected the US demand, saying that Ankara would keep buying Iranian crude, pursuing Turkish interests.
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