No need for Iran to use oil as leverage against West: Ghasemi
 

Tehran (Platts)--28Nov2011/913 am EST/1413 GMT

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi said Monday that Iran did not need to resort to using oil as leverage against US and international sanctions against it, apparently stepping back from remarks he made last week when he said oil could be used as a political weapon in exceptional circumstances.

"Iran doesn't need to use oil as leverage against the sanctions," Ghasemi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.

"Iran doesn't have any problems with regard to oil [exports] and using oil as a tool against the sanctions is not necessary," he added.

Ghasemi reiterated that Iran, the second largest oil producer in OPEC after Saudi Arabia, had enough customers for its crude oil and would not need to resort to such measures.

The Iranian minister said in an interview with English-language Al Jazeera International television on November 19 that Tehran did not consider its crude oil as a political tool. "However, if necessary we'll use it as a tool any way we need to," he said in the interview.

Iran, currently producing an average 3.6 million b/d of crude oil, has come under intense pressure since the publication earlier this month of an International Atomic Energy Agency report suggesting that it was seeking military application for its nuclear program.

The US has imposed a new set of sanctions specifically targeting its energy sector and the petrochemical sector in particular while Britain has imposed financial sanctions last week. France is now pressing for EU sanctions to ban the import of Iranian crude oil into Europe, a market that accounts for a fraction of Iranian crude oil exports, most of which are sold into the Asian market.

Tehran has consistently denied that it is developing atomic weapons and says its nuclear program is peaceful.

--Aresu Eqbali, newsdesk@platts.com

Creative Commons License
To subscribe or visit go to:  http://www.platts.com