The Middle Eastern country is indicating that the worst outcomes of the bans have now passed.
The latest international insurance news out of Iran has shown that the sanctions that have been placed on the country’s shipping and energy sectors by Western nations, and which had been causing significant struggles for its oil industry earlier in the year, are not having the impact they had earlier in the year.
The Iranian Oil Minister, Rostam Qasemi, explained that the country has all but overcome the impact.
Although it is standard procedure for officials of the nation to downplay the harm caused by restrictions from Europe and the United States on the oil industry of the country, Qasemi did explain that they faced challenges selling their oil during the summer months. He said that “In the month of Tir (June 21-July 21) there were difficult conditions for the oil industry.”
The international insurance sanctions banned coverage on tankers that transported the oil.
According to Qasemi, those international insurance bans did have initial impact on the country’s ability to continue selling crude. He said “One of the problems was the issue of transporting oil …it was not possible for any ship to enter our ports.”
He also added that the international insurance coverage for the tankers carrying the oil away from their ports had been removed “…and the import of many goods used in the development of the oil industry was banned.”
From June 21 through July 21, sales of oil plummeted to approximately 800,000 barrels per day (bpd). However, the Iranian parliament’s deputy speaker, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, stated in September that the sales had already started their recovery.
Estimations from the International Energy Agency showed that in September, the international insurance sanctions were still having some impact, as the 1.07 million bpd average still represented a multi-year low. However, by November, it had increased to 1.3 million, representing a meaningful growth. Equally, though, these figures are still considerably lower than the 2.3 million to 2.4 million bpd from the same time last year.
The European Union started this international insurance news last July when massive sanctions were implemented against the oil and shipping industries in Iran, and which put a ban in place against the ability of its insurers to cover any tankers that were carrying crude from Iran.
