Azerbaijan, Baku, Jul.8/ Trend F.Milad/
A consortium of Iranian private sector companies will take on 20 percent of the country's total crude oil exports as international sanctions against the Islamic Republic's oil and banking sectors took effect on July 1, Mehr reported.
Oil Ministry and Central Bank have agreed to transfer the exports of some 500,000 barrels of crude oil to the private sector as a way to circumvent the sanctions.
Therefore, the first consignment of crude oil will be exported by the private sector in the near future.
The European Union's oil embargo on Iran took effect on July 1 and a new U.S. law that penalizes countries that do business with the Central Bank of Iran by denying their banks access to the United States market. The law came into force on June 28.
Iranian oil exports have not dropped in May after, industry sources said, because core customers in Europe and Asia continue to buy ahead of European sanctions against Tehran.
Crude exports from Iran appear to be holding steady, according to a firm that tracks oil shipments. A source at a leading European oil company and another industry source also said shipments were little changed so far this month, Reuters reported.
Itanian ENI company continues, as of this month, to import about 20,000 bpd of Iran's oil, and this is to last up until September, until the company closes its debts to Iran, a EU official anonymously told Trend in June.
Last year, Iranian crude exports were running at about 2-2.2 million bpd with total production, including domestic consumption, at 3.5-3.6 million.