Tehran, Iran, April 24
Trend:
A member of Iranian Parliament's Energy Committee criticized Iran’s dependency on the oil export and stated that Saudi Arabia can fill Iranian oil vacuum in the global market.
"Unfortunately, Iran’s economy is mainly a single-product economy, and we have not been able to get out of this situation for the last forty years. The officials who were managing this sector over the past years did not allow to decrease the import of gasoline or producing and exporting gasoline by constructing refineries,” the member of Energy Commission in Iran’s Parliament Hedayat-ullah Khademi told Trend.
"If all our oil products were converted into gasoline and exported, and if we had a variety of products, the sanction issues would also be resolved," he said. ”When we decided to continue export of crude oil, the United States attempted to intervene in this satiation to reduce our oil exports. Today, Iran's oil sales significantly dropped from two million bpd, although we do not have accurate statistics on the amount of Iran’s oil export.”
In his words, the US goal is to cut Iran's oil export to zero. “Given that we do not have a large share in the international markets and that Saudi Arabia can replace our share, there is little chance of rising oil prices,” he said.
The US has announced it will no longer exempt countries from sanctions that aim to impose a complete oil embargo on Iran. Officials said the Trump administration would not renew any of the sanctions waivers granted to a group of countries including China, India, Turkey, Japan and South Korea, when those waivers expire on 2 May. According to the Trump administration, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other allies have agreed to fill any gap left by the loss of Iranian exports.
Saudi Arabia will “coordinate with fellow oil producers steps to provide adequate supplies to consumers while ensuring the global oil market does not go out of balance,” said Khalid al-Falih, the Kingdom’s Energy Minister.