Tabnak – The new US sanctions against Iran is set to target Iran’s oil industry, as well as its international economic interactions. While the Islamic Republic is mulling new measures for preserving its oil exports despite the sanctions, Washington declares new conditions for the costumers of Iranian oil.
In this vein, Iran says it is preparing for the second sale of its crude oil to individual buyers through its Energy Bourse after the first sale saw clients purchase 280,000 barrels at $74.85 last Sunday.
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said its second oil sale campaign comprising a collective of 700,000 barrels would proceed next Sunday. It added that the price of each barrel of oil would be $75.29, adding that the campaign would start at 14:30 Tehran’s local time (11:00 GMT).
The NIOC said the minimum purchase order – like the first round – would be 35,000 barrels, and that the purchased supplies would be delivered to successful bidders at the export terminal in the Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. During the first round which was held last Sunday, a total of three buyers purchased a collective of eight cargoes of Iranian oil.
According to NIOC’s arrangements, buyers would have to pay 20 percent of the total value of their purchases in Iran’s national currency – the Rial. The remaining payments would need to be made in foreign currencies after loading.
Buyers would have to pay 10 percent of the value of their purchases in Rials two hours before the start of trading. They can either buy 35,000 barrels of oil or a multiplication of this up to a ceiling of one million barrels.
The mechanism is seen as Iran’s answer to the returning US sanctions that would ban the country’s oil exports, among other restrictions, from November 5.
Meanwhile, the United States says countries that have received waivers to continue purchases of oil from Iran will have to set up escrow accounts from which payments to Tehran would be settled.
Senior US official Brian Hook was quoted by media as saying that settlements with Iran would be carried out through “credits” and not hard currency. Hook added that the importing nations would be required to make sure that Iran would spend the money from oil sales on humanitarian purchases.
He also stressed that Washington would closely monitor the functions of accounts allocated for Iran oil purchase settlements. “Any time Iran sells oil, that money goes into an escrow account in the importing nation’s bank, and Iran has to spend down that credit,” Hook was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that his administration would on November 5 restore all Iran sanctions that had been lifted in 2015 after a nuclear deal was signed between the country and the five permanent members of the Security Council – the US, Britain, France, Russia and China – as well as Germany.
