Azerbaijan, Baku, July 16/ Trend, Dalga Khatinoglu/
U.S know that sanctions imposed on Iran's oil export has forced Iran to shut off some oil wells which would damage the Iranian citizens' national energy assets in long term, but the current situation is caused by Iran's avoidance to engage its international commitments in the nuclear issue, Persian language spokesperson of the U.S State Department Alan Eyre told Trend on July 16.
The United States sanctions over the Iranian Central Bank came to force on 28 June whereby a new US law penalises countries that do business with the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) by denying their banks access to the United States financial markets. Blacklisting the CBI which involves transferring payments for exported Iranian crude oil is leading to a decrease in Iran's oil exports by 50 per cent to 1.1 million barrels per day, costing more than $3 billion which the Iranian government lost per month. Its 50 per cent of revenues relies on oil exports.
Just two days after the U.S. new round of sanctions, the European Union's sanctions over Iran came to force banning Iranian oil purchases by EU members and stopping insurance services to the tankers that carry the oil.
According to reports published by Reuters citing two Iranian officials anonymously, Iran stuck above 33 million barrels on its 10.5-million ton capacity tanker fleet and could be forced to shut off some wells at its vast oilfields.
Eyre said that it is clear that Iran has been forced to shut off some of its oil fields and that can damage Iranian oil reserves in the long term, but this occurred because of the Iranian government's avoidance to carry out its obligations in the nuclear area in respect of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
"Shutting off the oil is common. Sometimes it is needed to increase the pressure of oil and recruitment of the fields, but keeping oil wells closed in the long term mainly damages the reserves. However let me say that the international community is seriously attempting to curb Iran's suspicious nuclear programme to prevent nuclear weapon creation by the Islamic Republic. The fear from the manufacture of Iran's possible nuclear bomb is more than that from the increase of oil prices for the international community," he said.
Eyre said that the Iranian people know full well who the delinquent is and the main reason for their problems. "Iranian citizens acknowledge the real shares of international sanctions' effect on one hand and the Iranian government's politics and economic mismanagement including fraud, mafias' activities, corruption and other realities in Iran, " Eyre said.