Iranian MP: Oil sales dropped to 1 million pbd

Azerbaijan, Baku, Sep.23/ Trend F.Milad/

A member of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) has said that the country's oil export has fallen to around 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in the sixth calendar month of Shahrivar (ended on September 21).

Mohammad-Reza Bahonar added that the average volume of oil exports stood at 1 million bpd, while sales during the fifth and the sixth calendar months amounted to 800,000 bpd, the Persian language website Tabnak reported.

The Islamic Republic used to export about 2.3 million bpd of crude last year, which means shipments are down about 1.3 million bpd.
On September 2, Mohammad-Ali Khatibi, who is Iran's OPEC governor and the director of the National Iranian Oil Company, said Iran's oil exports are at their normal level and are unaffected by Western embargoes.

"We don't see anything abnormal, almost everything is progressing routinely," he told the ISNA news agency.
In July, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said that although the West has imposed sanctions on Iran's oil sector with the goal of toppling the Islamic establishment, the country's oil exports will never be halted because oil consuming countries need Iranian crude.

"There are many ways to easily sell oil, one of which is to take advantage of businessmen and the private sector," Qasemi said.
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.
U.S. sanctions entered into force on June 28, while EU bans on Iranian oil imports came into force on July 1.