Oil Minister: Sanctions unable to halt Iranian crude exports
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh underlined that the US sanctions have failed to stop Iran's oil supplies to other countries.
"Zanganeh guaranteed in the meeting that Iran's oil sales continue under any circumstances, specially under sanctions, and we will not allow any disruption in oil sales," Ali Sari, a senior MP, quoted Zanganeh as saying in Tehran on Tuesday in a meeting with the Iranian lawmakers.
"Sanctions leave no impact on Iran's oil sale," Zanganeh added, according to Sari.
Iran has denied US claims that sanctions have cut off the country’s oil exports to zero, saying it would exhaust any channel to ship its oil to customers around the world.
Iranian First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri said earlier this month that Tehran was ready to offer oil futures contracts for certain international buyers to offset the impacts of the US sanctions on its supply to the global markets, vowing that the country would not reduce its production at three to four million barrels per day.
Jahangiri said that contracts for buying Iran’s oil at pre-determined prices with maturity of up to three years would be available for “powerful economies”.
“Any powerful country that wishes to work with Iran can pre-order Iran’s oil for the next two to three years,” he added.
The second top government official said the measure was part of Iran’s efforts to minimize the impacts of US sanctions on the Iranian economy and its oil revenues.
Offering future oil contracts is a first of its kind for Iran, a major global supplier which used to earn around $150 billion a year from oil exports before the sanctions started in November. That would create an opportunity for buyers who believe oil prices would increase as a result of protectionist policies adopted by the US government.
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