OPEC's Badri hopes EU doesn't ban oil imports from Iran

Doha (Platts)--7Dec2011/652 am EST/1152 GMT
 

OPEC Secretary General Abdalla el-Badri said Wednesday he hoped that the European Union would not agree an oil import embargo on Iran over its controversial nuclear program.

Badri said a threat against any member of the oil producer club could affect oil supply to world markets and that an EU ban on oil imports from OPEC member Iran would remove a large volume of crude that would be difficult to replace.

"We are against threatening any OPEC country because that will effect production and supplies and the market. We want to solve those problems in peaceful ways without any threatening," Badri told reporters on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress in Qatar.

"I really hope that there will be no embargo from the EU," Badri said.

"But it is really very difficult to replace this 865,000 b/d that's coming to Europe, and Europe is now facing some difficulties...to cut 865,000 b/d immediately I think would be a problem," he said.

Badri's 865,000 b/d figure appeared to refer to total European imports of Iranian oil rather than those imported by the 27-member EU bloc.

EU countries imported an average 450,000 b/d of Iranian crude last year, 71% of which went to Italy and Spain, which took 183,000 b/d and 137,000 b/d respectively, the US Energy Information Administration said in a recent analysis. France took 49,000 b/d, the Netherlands 33,000 b/d, Greece 20,000 b/d, Germany 17,000 b/d, and the UK 11,000 b/d.

EU foreign ministers meeting last week in Brussels did not agree to a French proposal to ban oil imports from Iran but will study the issue again at their next meeting in late January. EU leaders are also expected to discuss the proposal, put forward by France, at a summit on Friday.

CONSENSUS

On Tuesday, EU energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger, who also participated in the Doha event, said there was already a consensus within the bloc that imports of Iranian oil should be banned.

Asked whether there was a consensus among EU member states on an embargo, Oettinger said: "I think so, yes."

The EU wants to "integrate this policy with all other big countries -- of course, the US, Russia and others. The more the better," he told reporters.

"I think at the moment we should be a complete European Union team and bring this common policy as an offer to other big countries," he said. "Our ministers at the commission think that a ban is a good offer to other countries to go to a global ban."

If adopted, an EU ban on Iranian oil imports would be the most drastic measure taken by Brussels against Tehran so far.

The West suspects Iran of trying to build atomic weapons and the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, published a report on November 8 saying there was "credible" information that Iran was carrying out "activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device."

Iran insists that its nuclear work is peaceful and aimed solely at generating electricity.

Tehran currently holds the presidency of OPEC and Iranian oil minister Rostam Ghasemi will chair the group's upcoming December 14 meeting.

--Staff reports, newsdesk@platts.com

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