Egyptian upheavals may cause temporary halt of oil exports

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 5 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /

Closure of Suez Canal will impact on the European oil market, Shana reported quoting Iran's governor for OPEC, Mohammad Ali Khatibi as saying.

Nobody can ignore the possible impact of Egyptian upheavals on the neighboring countries and its impact on temporary halt of oil exports, Khatibi added.

"Despite these developments, world oil market faces oil surplus, there is enough oil on the market and OPEC's oil production will rise just in case of shortage in the market," Khatibi said.

Khatibi said that Egypt had a low level of oil production and export adding the country exports just 100,000 barrels of oil per day.

The world oil market is balanced despite ongoing unrest in Egypt. OPEC will increase oil production only if the market faces oil shortages, he added.

But the more important issues are the pivotal roles of Suez Canal and the Suez-Mediterranean oil pipeline (SuMed) that are among the main outlets to transfer the Middle East oil to Western markets.

Referring to the transfer of a daily two million barrels of the Middle East oil to western markets via the route, Khatibi noted that in case of disruption of oil transportation through Suez Canal, oil tankers should change their way to navigate through Cape of Good Hope in Africa that takes more time to get to their destinations.
   
The geographical position of the Suez Canal makes it the shortest route between East and West as compared to the "Cape of Good Hope". The Canal route achieves a saving in distance between the ports north and south the Canal, the matter that is translated into other savings in time, fuel consumption and ship operating costs.

Suez Canal, about 166 km (103 mi) long, traversing the Isthmus of Suez and linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez with the Mediterranean Sea.