The Iranian National Oil Co. has reached out to five refiners in Asia for possible business deals if the U.S. lifts sanctions.
Iran reaches out to former Asian buyers to gauge their interest in buying its oil as Tehran ramps up diplomacy to lift U.S. sanctions .
Iran’s National Oil Company – The state’s oil market – has spoken to at least five refiners across the region to consider supply contracts if sanctions are lifted, according to people familiar with the matter. Preliminary talks, with no discussion of sizes or prices yet, they said, want to remain anonymous as the information is confidential.
One processor has been close twice this year after not interacting with an OPEC representative at all in 2020, according to one person. Iran’s oil ministry declined to comment on the matter.
The crude shipping in Iran went down somewhat after U.S. Vice President Donald Trump tightened sanctions from mid-2018 and terminated applications for some countries in 2019. However, a number of refiners maintained Chinese some oil. Prior to the sanctions – imposed to pressure Tehran to renegotiate a nuclear deal – China and India were the largest buyers in Asia, followed by South Korea and Japan.
Islamic Republic exports had reached around 2.5 million barrels per day in early 2018.
Oil wild card
Citigroup Inc. has described Iran as the biggest wild card for the oil market this year, although there is no guarantee that a deal with the US will come anytime soon that would lead to higher exports . President Joe Biden has offered to take part in talks to revive the nuclear deal, but Tehran wants U.S. sanctions to be lifted first. Europe has recently said it will be more proactive in trying to revive the agreement.
While oil exports from Iran remain under sanctions, shipments have been climbing and flows to China have received some unwanted attention. India also hopes Biden will take a softer line against Iran so that the world’s third largest oil importer can diversify its crude resources.
Beijing opposed the sanctions and accused the U.S. of not reaching outside its sovereignty. Washington claims Iran is removing its raw material to go under sanctions and the Department of Justice recently seized 2 million barrels of crude on board a Greek tanker, claiming that the owner deceived him into thinking that the oil came from Iraq.