Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 24 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova/
The European commission (EC) seeks for alternative oil supplier to the European Union countries instead Iran, the Energy Department of the European Commission said.
"The Commission [EC] is looking at where alternative [oil] supplies could come from," Nicole Bockstaller, the press-officer of EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, told Trend via e-mail.
The European Union banned imports of oil from Iran on Monday and agreed to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank, joining the United States in a new round of measures.
The latest sanctions by the European Union will be fully enforced by July 1. The sanctions on Iran oil are fraught with risks - of rising energy prices and global financial instability.
According to Bockstaller, crude oil imports from Iran represent around 6 percent of total EU oil imports.
In 2010, EU imports of crude oil from Iran amounted to 30.3 million tonnes representing 5.8 percent of total EU imports, she added.
It was the 5th supplier of the EU after Russia, Norway, Libya and Saudi Arabia.
The major Iranian oil consumers among EU countries are Spain with 14.6 percent of the total country's oil import, Greece with 14 percent and Italy with 13.1 percent.
Other oil importers of the EU are Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Czech Republic and UK.