Azerbaijan, Baku, May 14 / Trend D.Khatinoglu /
The European Union economic advisor Mehrdad Emadi told Trend on Monday that the Union members have decreased Iranian oil purchases significantly.
The EU members imposed sanctions on Iranian Central Bank, this country's oil purchases and providing insurance service to ships carrying Iranian oil on Jan.23 which will take force on July 1.
"Spain, Italy and Greece as Iran's major oil crude customers in EU decreased Iranian oil purchases by at least 18 percent and maximum 48 percent by March, but data for April has not been submitted by Union members", he said.
The EU imported about 450, 000 barrels of crude oil from Iran (18 percent of Iran's total oil export) in 2011.
Iran earlier announced that it banned oil export to France and Britain.
Most European refiners (including Turkey) have progressively stopped lifting Iranian crude ahead of the impending EU oil embargo due to take effect from 1 July. Imports have fallen to around 350,000 bpd in April down from 740,000 bpd, trade data compiled by Reuters showed.